Batgirl Beyond 2: The Mystery of Ten
by VeemonRemix
Summary: After the events of Batgirl Beyond, a new Ten appears in Gotham whose identity is a mystery-even to Batman and Bruce. When confronted with the shadow of her past, Melanie must decide whether or not it is time for Batgirl to return. Meanwhile, Mad Stan wreaks havoc, and acquires a weapon that is capable of mass destruction. Will our heroes be able to stop it?
1. Countdown

**So it's been quite some time, but here's the sequel that I told myself I wouldn't make when I was making the first one. This is a sequel to my first story, Batgirl Beyond, so I highly recommend reading that one before this one. It takes place several months after the events of that story, and I got enough ideas to work with in order to make this sequel. So here it is, Batgirl Beyond: The Mystery of Ten! **

**-x-**

It was a cold and bitter night.

A black SUV with bright headlights pulled up and parked next to a very big mansion. The doors on either side both opened, and two armed police guards exited the vehicle. To a resident of any other town, the level of security at this house would have seemed superfluous. But every resident of Gotham City knew that the precautions were to be expected at this particular wealthy man's house. Paxton Powers.

The guards walked to the front of the house after checking for any unwanted onlookers. The first security guard nodded his head at the second one. He unlocked the door and walked inside of the house. The door shut behind him.

They didn't look hard enough.

From a distance, a figure held up their binoculars. The darkness was so heavy, that the person was completely covered by it. No hair or distinguishable clothes were visible. All that was visible was the shape of a female, and red eyes that pierced through the night. The person held onto the trunk of a nearby tree with one hand and looked through her binoculars with the other. She watched patiently as the men walked into the house. She cracked a smile and let go of the tree. She landed on the ground and crouched down to soften the fall.

One of the security guards walked down a hallway to their left. The other security guard walked straight down the hall. A third security guard with blue eyes was already in the house and standing in front of a laptop computer on a counter. He quickly turned his head when he saw the other guard walk towards him, but the man signaled with his hand, indicating that it was him and not an intruder. The security guard who had just entered the house spoke.

"You get the message from Mr. Powers already?"

"Yep." The other guard replied. "I'm on it now."

The security guard looked over his shoulder and took a look.

"Preparing to secure the files now…." The blue-eyed guard spoke.

The girl outside hid behind a bush that was located in the house's backyard. She watched as a guard walked in front of her. She slowly reached down into her belt and waited for the right moment. A few seconds later, the guard had passed the bush. She quickly threw a flat projectile behind him that stuck in the ground like a knife.

The guard swung back and took a look.

"HEY! Who's there!"

There was no response. He looked around and saw the projectile on the ground. He slowly bent down and picked it up while looking both ways. He took a flashlight out of his belt and shined it on the projectile. At first he didn't comprehend what it was. It felt like a razor, but it looked like….

"A playing card?" The guard said out loud

Just then he was grabbed from behind. The girl had her hand over his face. The guard immediately jabbed his elbow back and knocked her away. The girl jumped up and quickly kicked him down to the ground. She jumped up and seemed to disappear again. The guard reached for his flashlight with one hand and his gun with the other. He thought to reach for his radio transmitter, but all of this was happening too fast.

"WHO ARE YOU! SHOW YOURSELF."

He pointed his gun, but couldn't see anyone. He suddenly heard rustling behind him. He quickly turned, but not quick enough. The girl held her glove to his face, and he watched as yellow gas escaped from it. He tried to stand his ground, but soon fell on top of it.

"Sweet dreams. Just do us all a favor and try not to snore too loudly" The girl said as the man turned his head and exhaled. He had been knocked out. The flashlight rolled on the ground and happened to stop in front of her. Her bodysuit was fully visible.

"Oh and for the record…" The girl smiled "You can call me Ten."

She wore a suit that was half white and half black, just as the ten suit was before. The black and white mask covered her face and red covered her eyes. She ran forward towards the house.

Thirty seconds later, the alarm sounded.

The two guards by the computer looked up.

"Let's go!" one of them yelled. The two of them held their guns as they sprinted away.

A few seconds later, Ten jumped down from the upper floor. She had entered in through a window before a second guard had noticed his friend unconscious on the ground.

Ten looked at the laptop screen and quickly navigated to the information she was looking for.

"Perfect." She said.

She took a flash drive and plugged it into the computer, and began copying the files.

"FREEZE!"

She was surrounded by three security guards. Two to her left and one to her right. All of them were pointing their guns at her. She looked over at the progress bar, and noticed that it was at sixty percent.

"Put your hands up and step away from the computer now!"

One of the guards demanded

She slowly complied.

Another guard spoke.

"I know who you are. I thought you and your Royal Flush family were out of Gotham for good!"

"And I thought that this place would have better security. But it looks like it's something of a disappointment for both of us, huh?" Ten replied.

She looked at the computer and saw that the transfer was complete. She smirked and put her hands behind her head

"Seriously though. You people make my job too easy. Just think about those news headlines. Four burly, trained security men versus one girl in spandex, and the girl got away"

"Got away?" One of the security men said. "Who says you're getting awa…"

Then, she did it. She swiftly reached into her belt and threw out three razor sharp playing card weapons. They all perfectly hit the security guards' hands and the three guns dropped simultaneously. One of the guards pulled out another gun and began shooting. Ten flipped over him and kicked him to the ground. The other two men sprinted over to tackle her, and she simply dropped one last card shaped gadget towards the ground. As it floated down the two guards grabbed her tightly. She struggled to be let free.

"You're gonna be sorry you ever trespassed here…" One of the guards said. Ten proceeded to hold her breath.

The card had touched the ground, and it exploded with more of the yellow gas.

The guards slowly let go as they began to lose consciousness, and Ten sprinted over to the computer and grabbed the flash-drive.

Ten kicked down the front door and smirked

"Nighty night boys. I recommend getting comfortable having me around. The Royal Flush Gang may be down, but now Ten's back and stronger than ever before."

She ran forward and hopped onto a massive card shaped glider. The last security guard watched her escape as he closed his eyes and fainted.

-x-

The next morning, a finger pressed a silver doorbell button.

Commissioner Barbara Gordon slipped her hands into the pockets of her brown coat as she waited for a reply. She had a rolled up newspaper in her right hand which peaked out of her coat pocket as well. She moved up and down to stay warm while waiting for the homeowner to answer the door. She leaned in to press the doorbell once more, and just as she let go, the front door opened.

Bruce Wayne was on the other side.

He leaned on his cane and looked straight at the commissioner.

"One ring is enough" Bruce said.

"Clearly it's not." Barbara replied.

"Is there something I can do for you, commissioner?" Bruce asked

"Don't play games with me, Bruce. You know exactly why I'm here."

She shoved the newspaper in front of his face. Bruce took it with one hand and leaned on his cane with the other. He read the headline out loud.

"Supposedly Reformed Royal Flush Member Suspected of Striking Back at Powers' Mansion."

His eyes scrolled down to a poorly focused picture of Ten from the robbery on her glider escaping the scene.

"My policemen are the ones who found Paxton's security team on the ground after the thief had already escaped. Powers himself was away on some other business at the time." Barbara said. "When we spoke to his security guards, their descriptions of the thief seemed to suggest that Ten of the Royal Flush Gang was behind the robbery."

Wayne looked up at her

"From our scoop of the place, it seemed like no money was stolen." Barbara continued. "But it looked like she stole some sensitive information off of Powers' database."

"And all this concerns me because…." Brue started

"I figured that you of all people would know more about this particular case than anyone."

"If you're talking about my former affiliation with Powers, I resumed my position as CEO a whole year ago…."

"Actually…" Barbara interrupted, "It has less to do with your affiliation with Powers and more to do with your affiliation with Ten."

Bruce looked shocked. His heart rate began to increase. For a moment, he wondered if Barbara had found out that…

"Or should I say, Ten's previous romantic affiliation with your little monkey-boy."

After she said that, Bruce felt relieved. She still didn't know anything about Bruce's run in with Ten a few months back.

"Who Terry spends his time with is his own business. But he and that girl are old news."

"So you're telling me that you haven't the slightest clue about this case."

"I can tell you this." Bruce squinted "You're wasting your time."

"Excuse me?" Barbara said

"The thief wasn't Ten. It couldn't have been."

"And what makes you so sure of that?" Commissioner Gordon replied after a few seconds. "It's a perfect motive. Ten was angry at Paxton for selling out her family like he did sometime ago, so she wanted revenge."

"Just look at the evidence, Barbara." Bruce said. "Ten is a low level thief. Swiping a flash-drive full of corporate data isn't her style. The Royal flush gang has a taste for jewels and trinkets, not files and encryptions. Powers has enemies all over the world, so it could have been anyone. Not to mention, Ten is retired. She's left the Royal Flush Gang."

"Oh come on, Bruce. Don't tell me that in all of those years of crime fighting, you haven't learned that criminals in Gotham don't just change."

"Apparently some heroes do."

"Listen to me, Bruce! I've been doing this for more years than you wanna count. Now if you don't wanna help me, then that's fine, but you have no right to question my judgment as a commissioner. Ten, or should I say…"

She pulled out a small notebook that was in her pocket and flipped to one of the pages.

"Melanie Walker…is a thief. And sure, she may have taken a little time out for a while, but you give her the right motive, and she'll be out stealing whatever she can get her hands on before you know it. That's what we got a perfect demonstration of the other day. That's the way all of those criminals do. It's in their nature."

"You still don't know that for a fact."

"You know Bruce, you seem pretty eager to defend that kid. Are you sure that there isn't something you know about this case that I should?"

Bruce didn't answer

"That's what I thought." Barbara said. She turned around and walked down the steps. "I'm going to find that girl and put her on a strict police surveillance. If she so much as sneezes in an unwanted area, my policemen will be there with a tissue and a hoard of cars ready to take her in for questioning."

"You can't do that. You have no proof she's done anything wrong."

Barbara reached the bottom of the stairs

"Once a criminal always a criminal, Bruce. There was a time when you knew that."

Barbara stopped in her tracks and turned around.

"Oh, and I almost forgot. Why didn't that house get a visit from a certain bat after it was robbed? It's not your style to leave the police's work for the police."

"I gave Terry the week off. He needed it."

"How gullible do you think I am? You really expect me to believe that you gave that boy time off?

"It's the truth"

Bruce said it as put his hand on the doorknob. He continued.

"So hopefully, he's getting some rest. I suggest you do the same, Commissioner."

Bruce shut the door with a slam.

-x-

It was nighttime again, and a small black car pulled up in front of an old warehouse. Two security men got out of the front of the car, and one of them opened the door to the backseat. A pair of black shoes touched the ground, and a man in a dark blue jacket over a black and white shirt stood straight.

It was Paxton Powers.

He adjusted his jacket and looked straight at the warehouse. He pulled a small white slip of paper out of his pocket and skimmed it.

The address of the warehouse that he was standing in front of was written on the paper.

"Charming…" Paxton said. He walked in between his two security guards and bumped one of them as he walked past. The two security guards picked up their machine guns from the car and followed Paxton towards the warehouse.

Paxton stood in front of the warehouse and pressed a bell. Not long after, he was buzzed in. He pulled the door open, and he and his two guards walked inside and shut the door behind them.

The inside of the warehouse was pretty big, but old looking. The warehouse appeared to have nobody inside of it. Paxton stood still and yelled.

"So this is your idea of a good place?" Paxton yelled.

Two well built men appeared from behind a giant box. One had short brown hair and the other had blonde hair and a tattoo on his neck. They were dressed in ripped street clothes. At first glance, anybody would pegged these men as typical Gotham "thugs".They walked towards Powers.

Paxton looked around

"What? No Stan? I'm insulted." He said

"Mad Stan chose not to come personally due to the nature of this meeting." The brown haired thug replied. The man spoke in a thick Russian accent. "He doesn't like having his toys taken from him."

"Well it was my toy first, and if you know what's good for you, you would return it to me." He signaled his security guards. They loaded their guns and pointed it towards the thugs.

"Now." Paxton said with a stern face.

The first thug nodded at the other one.

"Bring it out!" He yelled.

A tall, well built black man appeared out of the back pushing a giant wheelbarrow with a light blue cloth over it.

Paxton smiled and nodded at his security men. They dropped their guns.

The man with the covered wheelbarrow stopped several feet in front of Powers.

"Well? What's the holdup? Let me see the weapon." Paxton said.

"Stan wanted us to ask if there was any way he could possibly keep the weapon."

"Absolutely not." Paxton said. "I gave it to you since you paid me good money, but ever since my house got robbed the other night, there's no telling who I can and can't trust anymore."

"We had nothing to do with any of that, Mr. Powers." The man retorted.

"I don't care." Paxton said. He stepped forward and grabbed the cloth himself. "This is weapon is too dangerous for you kids anyway. If Mad Stan would have had the spine to come here and return this to me in person, perhaps he would have been able to plead his case for himself."

The two thugs reached for their belts.

Paxton slipped the cloth off. To his surprise and utter dismay, there was no weapon inside. But there was certainly something under the blanket. Paxton had just found out that Stan had in fact come in person, and just as always, came in the way he least expected.

Mad Stan had been hiding inside the wheelbarrow. His big physique, brown combat jacket and black undershirt were unmistakable. Mad Stan immediately put his hand forward and grabbed Paxton's face.

"Plead my case? Well why didn't you just say so!"

He screamed the statement at the top of his lungs. Paxton's men immediately pointed their guns, but didn't shoot since Paxton was in the way. Mad Stan's men drew their guns and began shooting at Paxton's security guards. Both of them squatted down under the wheelbarrow to avoid the bullets. Mad Stan threw Paxton down to the ground and jumped out of the wheelbarrow.

His men stopped shooting as Mad Stan hit the ground once again. Before Paxton's men could stand up and properly aim their guns, Stan had picked up Paxton by the back of his shirt and made him stand to his feet. Paxton tried to punch Mad Stan in the face, but Stan grabbed his fist and punched Paxton in the stomach. Stan moved to Paxton's backside and instantly locked Paxton's body in place with his two arms. Paxton struggled to try to escape.

"I pronounce that my friend, Paxton Powers, is guilty not only of attempting to take back a weapon that he sold to me, but he is also guilty of deliberately withholding the key to the weapon from me when he sold it."

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Lying under oath, Paxton? That's double time!"

"Shoot him!" Paxton yelled at his two security guards. They were still hesitant, since Stan was using Paxton as a shield. One of his security men looked down at the wheelbarrow.

"And due to the defense's lack of a reasonable case, I motion that Paxton Powers not see his weapon ever again, but instead, will kindly hand that key over to me. Even if it's done by deadly force."

The security man ran forward and kicked the wheelbarrow backwards as hard as he could. Paxton jumped up, and the wheelbarrow smashed into Mad Stan's boot. While it didn't hurt him, it caused him to stumble backwards. Paxton took the opportunity to elbow Stan in his chest and subsequently punch him in the face. Stan let go. Paxton ran forward and dove behind the wheelbarrow.

"Now!" Paxton yelled.

The two security men opened fire towards Mad Stan and his men. Mad Stan jumped out of the way, and his men opened fire as well.

Mad Stan climbed up onto one of the shelves in the warehouse. He kept climbing until he could get as high as he could. When he was near the ceiling of the room, he screamed down.

"And what good is a trial without a sentence?"

Paxton and Stan's men looked up. Mad Stan emptied a few of his jacket pockets of all of the tiny grenades and explosives.

"And now for the verdict, I decree that we blow up the whole courtroom! Blow it all to the ground!" He screamed it as he threw all of his explosives down.

"Take cover!" Paxton yelled.

Everyone stopped shooting and fled to the corners of the warehouse. A cascade of small explosions erupted around the entire room. A smokescreen from all of the explosions engulfed the entire room. It was a mystery as to why the warehouse hadn't collapsed on them yet.

When the smokescreen cleared, it was shown that all of the men were okay, but some were wounded.

"Those were just the appetizers! And now…" Mad Stan shouted. He emptied his lower pockets of two big grenades and held one in either hand. "It's time for the main course!"

The men on the ground shut their eyes. Mad Stan held one of the explosives up, ready to pull the pin and throw it.

Suddenly, the lights went out.

Mad Stan stopped. He looked around. Paxton looked back at his men.

"Did you do that?" He asked. His men shook their heads.

They heard three sounds one after another, all of which sounded like items flying through the air. Something dropped in front of Paxton. Paxton leaned over and picked it up.

Stan continued to scan the area.

"Who's there!" Stan yelled

Paxton held the item up to his face. It was a black and red metal weapon that was shaped like a bat. It had a small hole drilled on the top. Suddenly, white gas escaped from the weapon. Paxton instantly threw it aside and yelled back at his men.

"We need to get out of here now!"

"You mean…" One of his security men started.

"Yeah." Paxton said. "He's here."

The other batarangs released white gas as well. The room was soon enveloped in a white smokescreen.

"My show was better!" Stan yelled. He reached into another pocket and pulled out a handgun. "I know you're there Batman!"

He shot the gun blindly into the smoke. He looked around a few times.

After no response, he got angry.

"SHOW YOURSELF!" Stan screamed.

"Okay." The voice came from behind him. Stan slowly turned around. He saw the iconic figure standing in front of his face. He wore a black suit, a black mask, and carried a red logo on his chest. It was the Batman.

Batman knocked the gun out of his hand and it fell down through the smoke and towards the ground. Batman smiled.

"But only because you asked."

Batman wound back and punched Stan in the face. Stan lost his balance and fell backwards down towards the ground. Batman looked down and saw Mad Stan hit one of the shelves first, and then hit the ground.

The smoke began to clear up. Stan's men began shooting at Batman. Batman dove down to the ground and spread his red glider wings. He managed to dodge all of the bullets.

Except one.

One of the bullets shot through his wing and made his gliding unbalanced. He decided to put the wings away and land on the ground.

He landed on the ground and rolled in order to break the impact of his fall. He saw Mad Stan laying motionless on the ground. He ran up to Stan and leaned down to check his pulse. All of the sudden, Sam's fist jabbed backwards and hit Batman's Chin. Stan pushed his weight up with his hands and leapt to his feet. Batman balanced on his feet and looked past Stan. Paxton and his men were escaping the warehouse. Batman sprinted around Stan and tried to stop Paxton, but he couldn't before the Russian thug body-slammed into Batman after running at full speed. Batman was thrown into a heap of rubble left from the explosions.

Batman heard a voice from inside of his suit. It was Bruce Wayne's.

"Terry? Please don't tell me that you're wearing the suit right now."

"Now's not the best time, Bruce." Batman replied.

The black thug had a crowbar in his hand and was sprinting over towards Batman. Batman dug his arm out of the rubble and shot a rope attached to two metallic balls out of his suit. They tied around the thug's legs and he sailed over to the ground. Before he made contact, Batman leapt up out of the rubble and punched the thug in the face. He fell on the ground unconscious.

"I thought I gave you the week off…"

"Well crime doesn't take breaks, does it, old man? So neither should I."

"Careful. You're sounding a little too much like Batman now."

"Please, as if you actually expected me to take a break."

"Even Batman needs rest every once in a while. Trust me, if you push yourself too much you're likely to go over the edge."

"Are you going somewhere with this or did you just call to be my conscience for the night?"

One of Stan's thugs swung a punch at Batman. Batman ducked and tried to counter, but the thug grabbed his arm. The thug punched Batman in the chest and threw him aside. Batman managed not to lose his footing.

"I need you to investigate something for me. The commissioner came here this morning to ask about a robbery that took place this morning that could have involved Ten of the Royal Flush gang."

"You and me both know why that's not possible, Wayne."

Batman ran towards the thug again, but he gained the upper hand and knocked him aside once more.

"I didn't want to believe it either, but Gordon seemed pretty convinced. It's worth investigating."

The Russian thug grabbed Batman from the back and put him in a full nelson. The other thug cracked his knuckles as he walked towards Batman.

"So if you're already in costume, how about you do something about it now?" Wayne continued

"My hands are kind of full old man!"

The thug was about to swing a punch at Batman, but Batman grabbed onto the thug's neck with his legs and tossed him down. Batman bent his back and activated his jet boosters. He flew up towards the ceiling with the other thug on his back and made impact with the ceiling. The thug's back made a large crack in the ceiling. Both he and Batman fell down to the ground and landed in the rubble once more. Batman slowly got to his feet, but suddenly, he was grabbed from behind and thrusted across the room. He looked up. Mad Stan was the one who threw him.

"Come on Batman!" He spat as he shouted. "Is that the best you can do!"

Batman got on his feet and began running towards him. Stan simply stood still with his arms folded and a with a smile across his face. Batman put his fist up as he was running and prepared to punch him, but suddenly, Batman's foot came down on something metallic. He heard and felt it click beneath his foot. Batman stopped in his tracks and looked down.

He was standing on a foot shaped pad with a red button in the middle. He was stepping on the red button.

"I wouldn't step off of that if I were you, Batman." Stan spat. " Two of Stan's three thugs walked up to Stan and stood next to him.

"Exhibit A." Stan pointed down at Batman's foot. "A real life landmine."

It took a second to process, but Batman immediately looked up at him in disbelief.

"The moment you release the pressure, the three second countdown begins, and once the time's up, you blow this whole shack to smithereens." Stan said.

"Are you crazy! If I'd had stepped off I could have killed us all just no…"

"Then it's a good thing you did stop, huh Batman?" Stan interrupted with a shout. "And of course, we have Exhibit B."

Stan pointed to his unconscious thug friend on the ground next to the rubble.

"A typical Gotham lowlife." Stan said. Batman looked up at Stan

Stan opened the door to the warehouse with a remote control.

"The door will be wide open, so there's a sliver of chance that you might escape with your own life. So what will Batman do? Will he try to save his own life? Or will he try to save a local criminal and be blown up for sure? Oh so many choices in life. Unfortunately, this one could be your last."

Batman looked at the unconscious thug, and then looked at the landmine he was standing on. He froze his foot on that button as if his life depended on it, granted, it did.

"Stop this, Stan! That guy is your friend, isn't he?"

"Meh, a casualty or two to finally scratch an annoying bat is a risk I'm willing to not lose much sleep over. Oh and by the way, I wouldn't try to do any surgery on that thing. If it detects a hint of an adjustment, BOOM!"

His shout echoed throughout the warehouse.

"This is crazy!" Batman shouted

"No Batman…"

Stan hopped on a motorcycle and the two thugs hopped on theirs as well.

"It's mad. So long, Batman! I'll try to watch the fireworks show from home!"

Mad Stan laughed as he sped away on his bike and his two men followed him out.

Now it was just Batman and the unconscious thug. Batman looked back at the door that Stan and his men escaped out of. It was several yards away from him. Then he looked forward at the thug who was on the ground. He too was several yards away.

Three seconds. That's all the time that Stan said that he had to escape. Perhaps if his glider wing was working, he may have been able to fly over, pick up the thug, and narrowly escape before time ran out. But his wing had been shot. That meant that he was going to have to escape on foot. And if he tried to save the thug and escape out the front door, he would die for sure.

Batman felt so frustrated. A part of him wished that he would have just taken the week off like Wayne had suggested. Sitting on a sofa and watching television seemed much more favorable than this.

"I gotta cut it out…" Batman thought out loud. "There has to be a way…"

He looked at the man once more. Then he thought. Maybe if the man had woken up by now, he would be able to call him over and tell him to escape on his own.

"Hey! Hey, can you hear me!"

The thug grunted and turned his head.

"HEY!" Batman yelled.

The thug didn't move. He was still out cold.

"So much for that idea…" Batman said.

His muscles were growing tired. It had now been a few minutes since Stan had left, and Batman refused to move his foot even the slightest bit. His muscles were screaming at him to move.

"There has to be something I can do!" He yelled in frustration. He took a final look at the thug. Then he looked up. Batman looked down at the mine again, but suddenly, looked back up at the ceiling above the thug.

The crack was still there from when he smashed him into the ceiling.

That was his ticket out. He wasn't going to go through the front door at all. He quickly devised his plan, and then prepared to act it out. There was still a very narrow chance that he was going to make it, but it was worth a shot. Especially since it was the only shot he had.

"Now or never."

If this plan didn't work, he would have been blown up for sure. But like he thought to himself before, he couldn't afford to think of that now. He pulled a Batarang and held it in his hand. It began beeping. He took a deep breath. Then he ran.

He pushed the mine backwards with his foot and it slid towards the front door. Batman sprinted and threw the beeping Batarang towards the crack on the ceiling.

It stuck onto the ceiling. The mine counted down.

3….

Batman sprinted to the pile of rubble and threw the man over his shoulder.

2….

Batman activated his jet boosters and flew straight up. Even though he was moving straight up, it was extremely hard to keep his balance without his wings, and while holding a 250 pound man over his shoulder. Even with the enhanced strength of the suit, it was a challenge.

1…

His batarang exploded on the ceiling's cracked weak point and the whole ceiling crumbled.

0…..

The mine sent out a firey explosion. Batman yelled as he and the thug bursted through the falling ceiling, and as the fire from the eruption trailed behind them.

But he made it out. Barely.

Some of the fire burnt parts of his suit, but once they were out of the building, Batman lost his balance and both he and the thug plummeted to the ground. The thug was dropped onto a pile of leaves and Batman fell into a small, nearby lake.

Moments later, Batman climbed out onto the shore and used the last of his strength to lie backwards looking up in the sky. Batman could hear the police sirens coming towards the explosions.

Batman's suit was burnt and scratched. But he was just thankful he escaped with his life.

"Hey Bruce…" Batman said, speaking into his com-link. Batman breathed huge breaths in the middle of his words. "You might have been right…I think I'm in over my head."

"I guess that means that it's time to ask your sidekick to help you with the next case." Bruce said

"Come on, Bruce. Max is great, but these people are dangerous. I don't want her to get too tangled up with …"

"I wasn't talking about Max." Bruce said. "I meant your other sidekick. The one that's closer to the Ten case than anyone."

Batman's eyes widened as he looked up at the moon. Bruce leaned into the intercom and spoke.

"I think it's time to see if Batgirl's ready to take that suit off the hook."


	2. Doppelganger

2 Days Later.

Star City Gymnasium.

That's what the sign outside of the building read. Inside of the building was a large workout room. There were quite a number of people in the gym, but for some odd reason, none of the members seemed to stand out as much as the blonde girl with the punching bag who was in the middle of the gym. The girl wore her white workout shirt and yellow gym shorts. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a young looking face.

Melanie Walker.

One by one, she laid punches on the punching bag. Quicker and quicker she moved and punched.

Sweat dripped down her forehead and landed on top of her lip.

An image flashed across her memory. She saw herself as Ten robbing a bank with the Royal Flush Gang some years ago. She remembered as when she punched out one of the police guards who was flashing a gun at her.

Melanie punched the bag harder and faster.

She remembered when she and her father, King, robbed a museum and escaped out of the top of the building with their gliders.

She punched harder.

Finally, she remembered when she and the Royal Flush gang came to Gotham, and she remembered her face-off with Batman. The last image that came across was herself being arrested with her family and Terry watching from a distance.

She took one last punch which swung the punching bag up into the air. It reached it's high point and was now swinging back to her. Melanie had lost her concentration. The bag was about to hit her square in the face. She quickly shut her eyes.

Then it stopped. Melanie opened them and saw that someone had stopped the bag before it hit her. The person was holding it from behind, so from her angle, the bag was blocking the person's face.

The person behind the bag spoke

"Well, it looks like someone's been working out lately."

She recognized the voice, but couldn't believe that he would be here at this time. Surely enough, Terry popped his head to the side of the bag and smiled at her. Melanie smiled from ear to ear.

"Terry!" Melanie yelled. He let go of the punching bag and let it lightly swing over to her. She ran over and hugged him.

"And she has the sweat to prove it…" Terry mocked as he hugged her back.

"Sorry." Melanie let go and walked backwards. "What brings you all the way to Star Ci…"

A red-headed girl bumped into Melanie while she was walking backwards. The other girl was knocked to the ground. Melanie looked down.

"Oh my goodness. I am so sorry ma'am!"

The girl rubbed her head and then looked up at Melanie.

"Walker?!" The girl yelled with a hint of disgust in her voice.

"Oh…Kate…it's you…I'm sorry"

The redhead angrily stood up and looked at Melanie eye to eye. The girl was exactly Melanie's height, and looked around her age. She had red hair, green eyes, and a rather muscular physique like Melanie had. "Why don't you watch where you're going next time, Walker!"

"I said I was sorry…" Melanie mumbled

"For some reason, I don't buy that. Something tells me you knocked me down on purpose." The girl said. She clenched her fist and took a step towards Melanie. Melanie tried not to make eye contact with her.

"Maybe we can see who's been spending the most time in here. What do you say, Walker?"

Terry stood in between the girl and Melanie.

"Hey, back off." Terry said.

"Terry, it's alright…" Melanie tried to whisper without having Kate hear.

"And who's this? Your boyfriend?" The redhead asked

"I…" Melanie started.

"No." Terry said. "Just someone who minds the way that you talk to my friend."

Terry crossed his arms. "You wanna touch her you're gonna have to go through me."

Terry stared straight at the girl. The girl half smiled

"You're cute, you know that?" She said

Terry pointed with one arm

"Go. Now."

The girl rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

She turned slowly turned around, but made sure she made eye contact with Melanie on her way out. She walked away. Terry turned around.

"Glad that's over." Terry said

"No. I appreciate what you did, but you just made it worse." Melanie replied.

"Who was that?"

"Her name's Kate Robinson. She works at Star City's branch of Wayne Enterprises with me. That girl's had it out for me ever since I moved here."

"Why?"

"I really don't know. It probably has something to do with the fact that we're currently competing for the same promotion down at Wayne Enterprises. Still, you'd think that someone wouldn't be that aggressive over it. It really beats me."

"Sorry you have to deal with that. All this time I was thinking that you were having it easier here than you were in Gotham."

"Don't get me wrong, I really like, and am very thankful for the job that Wayne got me. I also really like Star City. This is such a nice place to live."

"Yeah, the old man used to talk about one of his friends who lived here…Something Queen?"

Melanie shrugged

"Beats me." She said.

"So how are you holding up here?"

"Well like I said, it's not easy. Especially after all that's happened. But the most important thing is that I'm living an honest life now. And even if that means that I have to make a few enemies along the way, I'll take it over my old life of crime any day."

"Speaking of that…" Terry started, "the reason why I'm here is to ask you about something."

Melanie smiled as Terry reached into his backpack

"And all this time I thought you made the trip just to say hello…" She teased.

"Maybe another time."

He handed her the newspaper, but Melanie didn't look down yet.

"A couple days ago, Paxton Powers' security guards had an unexpected run-in with an old-timer."

"Why does this concern me? Paxton has nothing to do with me or my family anymore." Melanie questioned.

"Well that's not what the city thought after that paper hit the newsstands a few days ago."

Terry motioned towards the newspaper and Melanie looked down.

She almost lost her breath when she saw the headline. She didn't believe what she was seeing.

SUPPOSEDLY REFORMED ROYAL FLUSH MEMBER SUSPECTED OF STRIKING BACK AT POWERS' MANSION

Melanie hands trembled as she looked at the paper. She wanted to stop her eyes from glancing down at the picture, but they seemed to do it beyond her control.

Her heart nearly stopped when she saw the picture of Ten. The picture was out of focus, but she knew the suit when she saw it. The thief was in the full Ten suit, dressed from head to toe.

She looked up at Terry.

"Terry…I…" She started. "I don't know who did this but…it…it wasn't me." She began to read the article.

Terry opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted when Melanie tore the entire newspaper in two and held the two halves in either hand.

"I can't believe this is happening." Melanie said.

Terry put his hand on her shoulder. Melanie was breathing heavily and trying to hold back tears.

"Melanie. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry. It's just hard when you do everything you can to leave all of this behind you, and it seems like none of it matters." Melanie wiped her forehead. "I'll be fine. So have you guys figured out anything?"

"No not yet. This particular case is a hard one to crack because all the evidence seems to lead back to…well…Ten. Which would be you."

"So why did you come here Terry? To take me in for questioning?"

"No." Terry said. "If you say you didn't do it, then I trust that it wasn't you."

"You have to believe me, Terry. I had nothing to do with any of this."

"I sure hope not. Because I'm here for another reason, too. I need your help, Melanie."

"Help? What do you want me to do?"

Terry scratched the back of his head

"Well. I was thinking something along the lines of getting your shoes a little dirty with me. As dirty as you got them the last time we met."

"You mean…"

"Yeah. I think I'm gonna need to take you up on your offer that you gave me when you left Gotham."

Melanie handed Terry back what remained of the newspaper

"I can't"

"But why? If there's anyone who would be the most help with this case it would be you."

"I'm flattered, Terry, but you obviously don't remember what happened the last time I "helped you out".

"Oh I remember alright. You saved my life, and put King, Sable and Willie Watt back behind bars. You're a hero!"

Melanie crossed her arms and looked up at him. She looked slightly aggravated.

"You're Batgirl." Terry said quietly while smiling.

"No I'm not. Sure, I had a little fun in the Batgirl suit the last time we met. But take my word for it, Terry. I'm not a hero. You, Bruce, Commissioner Gordon. You're the heroes. Not me."

She looked down to the ground next to her

"I've done too much in my past to be considered one of those. And one night in a Batsuit didn't change that for me."

"Melanie, that's ridiculous."

"Is it, Terry?"

"It absolutely is. Nobody's perfect, and what's important now is that you've changed."

Melanie closed her eyes and tried to look away, but Terry grabbed her face and made her look up at him.

"I know you have."

Melanie exhaled

"Terry, you don't understand. If you knew all of the things that I did before I met you, you'd…I cant…It's just that…"

Melanie's watch began beeping. She quickly brought it up to her face.

"Uh oh. I'm late." Melanie said

"Late for what?"

"I have to pick up my friend Chloe from the airport."

"Chloe? I've never heard of her."

"She's an old friend. One of the few that I had growing up. Anyway…I gotta go Terry."

Melanie turned around and began walking.

"Melanie!" Terry yelled. She stopped.

"We need you. Promise me you'll at least think about it."

Melanie didn't look back.

"Goodbye Terry." She said.

She walked out the door.

-x-

The room was cold and small.

One lonely table was inside of the room, and two chairs were on opposite sides of it.

Mad Stan's thug who Batman rescued was sitting on one end of the table, and Commisioner Gordon was standing on the other side of the table, and had two police guards on either side of her. She had a file in her hand.

The thug seemed very unamused.

"So. This is your ploy, huh? You're just gonna keep quiet the entire time?" Commisioner Gordon asked. The thug didn't answer. He simply picked his teeth with his pinky finger.

"Can you at least tell us why you're not speaking?"

"Because I answer to Stan and not to the likes of you." The thug replied.

Barbara put her hands in her pocket and leaned in so that she could see the thug face to face.

"Well it appears as if your loyalty to Mad Stan was of no value. The last we checked he was using you as a pawn in his little game with Batman. He was this close to putting you and that entire warehouse in the ground. It's a miracle that Batman was able to save your life."

The thug's eyes fell

"I can't believe it." He said. "After all we had been through, he threw me out like trash."

"He calls himself Mad Stan for a reason. Now I'm not asking again. What business do you have with Paxton Powers?"

"All I know is that it he sold Stan the weapon, but a few days later, Paxton called him to bring it back."

"What kind of a weapon did he give you? An Explosive? Ammunition?"

The thug rested his arms behind his head and put his legs on the table.

"I can't tell you that. That would ruin all the fun."

One of Gordon's security guards stepped towards him, but Barbara blocked him with her arm.

"It's alright."

A grimace spread across the thug's face.

"Let's try this from another angle." Gordon continued "You had no intention of giving the weapon back, did you?

"Nope. And the rich boy didn't suspect a thing."

"So the real question is why did you guys bother showing up at all?"

"Psht. If you would have asked me, there was no point in us being there. But…"

"But what?"

The thug fixed his brown eyes on Commissioner Gordon.

"…I don't think Paxton gave him everything to get the weapon to work. The rat sold us short. It was missing something. And Stan came to collect."

"What was missing?"

"A key of some sort. As powerful as the weapon is, it needs a key to unlock. And Mr. Powers didn't deliver."

"This weapon…how powerful is it?"

The thug took his feet off and sat straight on the table. He looked the commissioner in the eye.

"You'll find out soon enough, Commissioner. Everyone in Gotham will."

The guards both looked at Commissioner Gordon who was looking sternly down at the thug. The thug slowly smiled and let out a light laugh.

-x-

Melanie walked past a stream of people at the busy airport. She scanned the crowd for her friend, but she didn't seem to see her. No one quite fit the bill of her short haired, dark skinned friend who she was looking for.

As the minutes passed on, she was getting tired of looking for her friend. She glanced down at one of the soft airport seats, and sat down in hopes to catch her breath.

She hung her head and closed her eyes. Terry's words ringed through her memory.

'You saved my life, and put King, Sable and Willie Watt back behind bars. You're a hero…You're Batgirl!"

Even though all of it happened no more than three months ago, it seemed like it was only yesterday when she left her former life as the criminal Ten, and took on the new persona of Batgirl.

It was hard to pinpoint exactly where her journey as Batgirl started. Perhaps it was when she was standing in her apartment room and saw on the news that Batman had gone missing. She flashed back to when she broke into Wayne Manor and found the Batcave. It was there where she inadvertently learned that Terry was the Batman, and it was where Bruce Wayne trained her to be Batgirl. She remembered how hard the training was, and particularly remembered Bruce's training task in which he had her hang from a ledge with a heavy weight.

Perhaps the most memorable of all of the training was when she recreated her Ten suit and formed it into the Batgirl suit. All of the combat training in uniform paid off in her rescue mission, when she found herself fighting Sable Thorpe and Willie Watt at the old abandoned warehouse where they had kept Batman.

But what she remembered more than anything was how her anger towards her father drove her, and how she found herself standing in front of him, ready to finish him for good. But in the end, she didn't do it, and learned that vengeance wasn't the only option. Afterwards, Bruce had hooked her up with the job in Star City that she had now. But not before she decided to quit being Batgirl, and had decided to leave Gotham City in the past. Or so she thought.

'We need you.' She remembered Terry's last words.

"Maybe…" Melanie began to think out loud. "Maybe I could…"

Just then, one last image flashed across her memory. It was an unclear image of Ten watching from a rooftop looking down on a house. The thunder struck. The next image was Ten riding away on her card shaped glider. Ten took one last look at the hosue and then looked forward.

Melanie's eyes shot open and she gasped loudly. She breathed heavily.

After a moment she calmed down and dug her head into the palms of her hands and exhaled.

"Melanie! Is that you, girl?"

She looked up. She saw a group of people who were moving about, but in the middle she saw a young woman with short, black hair and with caramel colored skin. She had bright brown eyes, and wore a dark orange top with blue jeans. She was smiling and waving at Melanie.

Melanie smiled and ran out of her seat.

"Chloe!"

The two hugged each other tightly.

"It's good to see you, girl!" Chloe said. "It's been forever!"

"I know. So much has happened since I last saw you."

"I wanna hear all about it."

-x-

Melanie was driving Chloe back from the airport.

"So Star City is treating you well?" Chloe said

"Yeah, it is. I like the area. It's a nice place." Melanie responded.

"Do you ever think of moving back to Gotham City?"

Melanie stared at the road

"I don't know. Sometimes. But I haven't been back since I got here."

"That's not what the papers are saying…" Chloe said

Melanie turned and looked at her.

"I'm sorry. Maybe it's too soon." Chloe said

Melanie looked back at the road.

"It wasn't me. I don't know who it was."

"So is it all true?" Chloe crossed her arms. "That you really left that life as the card carrying criminal behind you?"

"Yeah. I don't know if I would have been able to do it without Mr. Wayne. He's the one who got me a place here, and helped set me up with an honest job."

"Well good for you." Chloe didn't sound too convincing when she said it. She said it in a quiet, rash, sarcastic tone.

"Look, Chloe. I know that this is all a little awkward for you in light of how our friendship used to look like, and what happened the last time we were together…"

"Save it, Mel." Chloe said. "It was a long time ago. Things change, I get it. Those days are behind me also. But I guess it' a little hard to believe that a big name criminal like Ten would leave everything to become a pencil pusher at Wayne Industries, but hey. If it's what makes you happy.

Melanie smiled

"You should have seen what life as a dishwasher was. Talk about living below your comfortable means…"

Chloe smiled also. "Look. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring this topic up. Let's forget we even mentioned it. What else is new with you? Any boys in your life?"

"Uh. Kind of…"

"Woah!" Chloe yelled with a smile as she was looking outside of the car. "Is that a Brittney's? I didn't know they had this place in Star City!"

"Huh? Oh yeah. They do. It's a pretty well known jewelry chain here."

"They have the shwayest stuff, girl!" Chloe exclaimed. "Sometimes I just go there to window shop. You think we could stop there just to look around?"

"I don't know if showing my face around a jewelry shop is the best thing for my reputation. Someone might recognize me there."

"Oh come on, Mel, this is Star City not Gotham. If anything they'd recognize your name, not your face."

Melanie stayed quiet for a while. Chloe put her hand on Melanie's arm.

"Hey, look. We don't have to go if you don't want to. I didn't mean to make it personal."

"No. I'm sorry. We can take a look in there if you want. It'll be a nice way to welcome you to Star City."

"Now that's my girl!" Chloe said. "If you want I can just go in and take a look around for myself."

Melanie turned into the parking lot.

"No, I'll go in with you. Nothing wrong with a couple of friends having an outing together, right?"

"That's the spirit."

The store was a massive jewelry store with all kinds of trinkets and jewel stones.

"This place is beautiful…" Chloe said. "After you…" Chloe gestured for Melanie to take a look at some of the jewelry.

"This stuff is pretty nice…" Melanie said it as just a formality. In reality, there was a time when she used to have jewels much nicer and bigger than these in her own bedroom. But that was then.

"Oh and that's not all…" A man's voice said it. An older man with gray hair introduced himself to them as the owner of the shop.

"Take a look in here." He said.

Melanie and Chloe followed him into another room. Chloe leaned into Melanie.

"You sure you're okay in here?"

"I'm fine, Chloe." Melanie said.

"Alright. Just looking out for you is all…"

They made it to a small room with a red carpet. There were a couple other families there with flash cameras and nice clothing. In the middle of the room were two gorgeous diamonds that were stowed under a glass, one was a brilliant red and the other was a bright blue. The old man began to speak loudly.

"Here we have a one of a kind pair of Sapphire and Ruby diamonds. These two diamonds are two halves of a whole masterpiece, if you will, and we at Brittney's Jewelry of Star City are very fortunate to have not one, but both of these state of the art diamonds in our own collection. Despite their old age, it still is of the same fascinating quality as it was when it was first hand-crafted. Beautiful stones indeed." The old man continued

Chloe put her hands behind her back and Melanie crossed her arms as they continued to listen.

"Wow…unbelievable…" Chloe said

"How much would one typically go for individually?" One of the men asked.

"Well over 8 million a piece, but together they're probably priceless." Melanie responded as if it was by demand. Right after she spoke, she wished that she hadn't. Everyone in the crowd looked back at her.

"Exactly….right…" The jewler said after he too stared in shock. "They're approximately 8 and a half million dollars each…but since they're a one of a kind set, they're not up for sale. How did you know that?"

Melanie stood still. She spoke softly.

"Call it a lucky guess…"

The jeweler raised his eyebrow.

All of the sudden, a loud explosion erupted. The ceiling had exploded and segments of rubble fell down. The crowd screamed and ran in a frenzy.

"What was that!" Chloe yelled.

"I don't know…" Melanie responded

The alarm made an ear bleeding ring as the people were scattering around. The security guards sprinted for the main room.

"Everyone evacuate out of here, now!" The security guard screamed.

The crowd grew crazier and crazier. Everybody was bumping into everybody.

A few people bumped into Chloe and threw her down to the ground. She reached her hand out towards Melanie.

"Mel!"

Melanie looked around for her

"Chloe! Chloe, where are you?"

Chloe stood up and tried not to get trampled the hoard of people.

"Mel!"

Melanie finally saw her. Chloe tried to move closer to Melanie, but couldn't successfully oppose the traffic of people.

"Chlo! This isn't working!" Melanie shouted on the top of her lungs over the siren and the frantic screaming. Chloe looked behind her.

"Maybe I'll meet you outside by the car! It won't be as crowded and crazy out there!" Chloe shouted back

Melanie nodded

"Sounds good! Stay safe!"

Chloe turned around and ran.

The security guards climbed the stairs to the top floor to see what the problem was. All they could see was a hole in the ceiling and the falling debris.

"Why don't you quit being a coward and show yourself!" One of the security guards yelled while yelling out the hole. They all had their guns pointed at the opening.

Melanie began to head for the exit, but then looked at where the security guards were positioning. She almost couldn't believe what was happening. Was she seriously witnessing a jewelry theft in broad daylight like this?

Something inside of her told her to follow Chloe and leave as quick as possible, but another part of her was curious as to what was really going on. By now it had already been a few minutes since the explosion, and this thief wasn't showing themself. She looked once again at where the crowd was running, and then looked back at where the police were. She had made her decision.

She turned away from the door and ran towards the police.

"We mean it!" Another policeman yelled. It was frustrating for them, since they were blindly aiming at a massive hole in the roof, but couldn't see the perpetrator. "On the count of three you come down here with your hands up! If you don't, we're throwing more ammunition than you can handle.

"One, two…"

Just then, a playing card floated down to the floor from the hole in the ceiling. The guards didn't know whether to shoot at it or not.

It touched the ground and one of the guards looked down at it. He could hear ticking.

"Everyone take cover, now!"

Right after he spoke, the card exploded. A couple of the policemen were tossed from the top floor and into the wall, right before they slid to the ground and rolled over unconscious. The last remaining policeman stood with his gun in position when the thief droppd down from the ceiling.

The black and white spandex over the girl's suit gave it all away. It was Ten.

The guard tried to shoot at her but his bullets seemed too slow for her.

"You're gun annoys me."

She threw a razor sharp card which sliced into the gun. The policeman threw it away as fast as he could, rightfully so. The gun exploded into flames after he had let go. Ten leapt up from the smoke and kicked the policeman in the face. He fell down unconscious.

"Now to collect my paycheck…" Ten said as she took out a brown bag. She leapt down to the bottom floor and cut a hole in the glass with a laser that was built into her suit. She grabbed the two diamonds and tossed them into her bag.

"Like taking candy from a baby…"

She quickly turned around, but noticed that one girl was standing in front of her. The only person in the whole room who wasn't either unconscious or running was in Ten's way. Melanie Walker.

It was hard for Melanie to look at her. So many questions raced through her mind. Who? Why? How? But her doubts weren't expressed when she made her bold statement.

"Those don't belong to you. Drop them. Now." Melanie said.

Ten walked up to Melanie's face.

"And why would I listen to the likes of you?" Ten asked with a smile

"Let's just say I've been in your shoes before. It's not worth it. Cut it out, now. I can't even stand to look at you."

There was a pause, and eventually, Ten smiled. She slowly lifted her hand towards Melanie's head and flushed her blond hair in it. Melanie stood still with a scowl.

"And what happens if I don't listen to the little blonde haired damsel." Ten said it as she flushed Melanie's hair with her hand.

"You'll be sorry."

"Sure I will." Ten said. Immediately Ten grabbed Melanie's hair and drove her head into her knee. Ten spun around and kicked Melanie which made her shuffle backwards. She leaned on a table that had a display of pearl necklaces on it.

"I don't know who you are, Barbie, but this is none of your business. Stay away." Ten said

"Oh trust me. It is my business. And I'm about to put yours to an end."

Melanie ran over tried to land a punch on Ten. Ten blocked it with her closest arm, but it wasn't long before Ten recoiled her arm in pain and yelled as she grabbed onto it. Melanie had put one of the rock solid pearl necklaces around her knuckles. Melanie dropped it to the ground.

"You'll pay for that…" Ten said grunting through her pain.

"The way you're fighting, I highly doubt I will…" Melanie mocked

Ten sucked up the pain and jumped up and tried to hit Melanie, but Melanie spun around hit Ten in the back. Ten got on her knees. Melanie ran up from behind and locked Ten's throat with her elbow.

"Had enough yet?" Melanie asked.

"Barely." Ten replied. Ten pressed a button on her suit which sent a sharp electric shock to Melanie. Melanie screamed and let go. She was met with a punch in the face from Ten. Ten pressed a few buttons on her wristwatch. Melanie tried to run for her again, but all too fast, Ten's card glider swooped into the room and rammed into Melanie's chest. Melanie flew back as Ten hopped on the glider. Melanie rubbed her head and looked up as Ten rode her glider towards her. Ten grabbed Melanie by the shirt and took her outside of the building. Ten rose higher and higher on her glider as she held Melanie out over the edge of it.

"Let's hope you don't survive this. But even if you do, let it be a lesson to you. Ten is back, new and improved. And no one's gonna stop her from getting what she wants. See ya later, Barbie."

Ten dropped Melanie from that high distance and turned around and glided off. Melanie spun around as she fell through the air. At this rate, if she were to hit the ground, she could end up in the hospital with all broken bones or worse. She looked forward and saw a tree beneath her. That was her ticket to not dying, but she only had what felt like milliseconds to respond. She tried to fall towards the tree, in hopes of softening her fall by hitting the leaves and grabbing onto the branch. She fell closer and closer to the tree. But it didn't work as planned.

She ended up grabbing onto a twig, which ended up breaking and scraping a small part of her hand open, and had a tree branch hit her in the stomach. She slowly slid off the branch and hit the ground below backwards.

She fell unconscious.

-x-

After what seemed like hours later, she slowly opened her eyes and saw Chloe on top of her, with two policemen to the side. There was also a paramedic there as well.

"Mel! Mel! Are you alright?"

Melanie slowly sat up. One of the policemen spoke into his walkie talkie.

"Yeah. The girl's okay." The policeman put his walkie talkie away and spoke to Melanie. "How are you feeling? We thought we were gonna have to call some more paramedics here soon. It's a good thing your friend found you out here and was able to call for us in time."

"No, don't worry about it. I'm fine. Thanks Chloe."

"You had me worried sick girl! I had to have been waiting by that car forever before I realized that you weren't coming back."

"I'm s…" Melanie started coughing. Before she could finish

"Excuse me…" She said

"No, you've been through a lot Mel. Here let me lend you this. Just take it easy, alright?"

Chloe took off her jacket and put it around Melanie.

"Thanks again for everything, Chloe."

"Alright. Then I guess all is well." The paramedic said.

But it was quite the contrary. All wasn't well. Melanie looked up at the sky towards where Ten had flown away.

There was no going back now. Ten had pushed, so now it was time to push back.

Something had to be done, and someone was going to do it. And she knew exactly who.

It was time for Batgirl to return.


	3. Infiltration

Batman was standing next to Wayne in front of a large monitor. Batman had his hood rolled back, revealing Terry's face. Ace, Bruce's dog, was lying down by the computer as well.

"It still doesn't add up for me." Wayne said. "I still don't get why Mad Stan would have bothered returning to fight Paxton if he had already given him the weapon that he wanted."

"All I know is that Stan was rambling on and on about missing some sort of part. I can't remember whether that was before or after he tried to blow me and every unturned table in that warehouse to smithereens."

"What kind of a part?"

"I don't know." Terry turned around and started for the door.

"But I intend to find out." He was about to pull the mask over his face.

"Before you go. One last thing. What have you been able to gather about the Ten case?"

Terry exhaled and turned around. "Absolutely nothing. Melanie claims that she didn't even have a clue about what was going on."

"So you managed to speak with her…"

"Yeah. She seems to be doing alright. There was this girl in the gym who was giving her trouble though. She said her name was Kate Robinson or something, and that she worked with her."

"Kate Robinson? You mean Dr. Carl Robinson's daughter?"

"You know her dad?"

"Her father used to be a well respected physicist in Wayne-Powers back when we were a joined unit. He retired and moved to Star City, and I presume that he was able to get her daughter a job there too."

"Interesting. But it still doesn't help the fact that Melanie seems to have no connection to the robbery, and that just puts us back at square one."

"Do you believe her?"

Terry crossed his arms

"I want to. But there's still so little to go off of. And one way or another we're gonna have to find out where Ten's gonna strike next."

Wayne nodded

"Since the night of the robbery, there have been no other confirmed sightings of her in Gotham City." Wayne said

"Then it sounds to me like it's time to take your nose out of your hometown and start looking at other places."

A young female had said it. Both Bruce and Terry turned in shock as they saw Melanie walk down the stairs.

"Perhaps Star City for starters."

Ace stood up and barked furiously at her.

"Ace! Down!" Wayne said

Ace growled as she walked past him and up to Bruce and Terry.

"Long time no see." Bruce said

"It was supposed to stay that way." Melanie added. "But thanks for all that you did for me back in Star City. I appreciate it."

"So what brings you to Gotham City?" Bruce asked

Terry noticed all of the bruises over Melanie's body

"Melanie, you look awful! What happened?"

"Well, I had an unexpected run in with a black and white beauty back in Star City. And it wasn't a happy one. "

"I presume you're talking about Ten." Bruce said

Melanie nodded. "We got into quite the fight. Nothing more than a few cuts and bruises but…"

"What did she do to you?" Terry asked

"Look, Terry, it's really nothing…"

"No." Bruce interrupted. "Show us."

Melanie slowly took her jacket and gloves off and rolled up her short sleeves. She held out her palms for them to see.

"She dropped me from a few stories high. I cut my hand on a branch and have bruises all over from the fist fight. That's all."

"What about that cut on your arm?" Terry asked

Melanie turned over her left arm and glanced down at it. There was a little bit of blood left on it.

"I don't know where that's from…but she was throwing razor cards all over the place, so maybe one of them got me. Funny, I didn't even feel it."

"Maybe you should let us take a blood sample. Whatever she cut you with may have been poisonous." Terry said

"I agree. It's standard procedure whenever Terry gets cut by any unidentified objects." Wayne said

"What? Come on you two!" She threw her jacket back on. "I can take care of myself, you know! I don't need you guys to babysit me anymore."

"We're taking the sample." Bruce said

"Fine! Take your blood sample. But that's not the reason why I came."

They both listened to her. Melanie crossed her arms

"Running into the Ten copycat made me realize that the stakes are high. So to make a long story short, I want in."

"You mean…" Terry started

"Yes. I want the Batgirl suit. At least until this criminal is turned in."

Terry looked at Bruce and then back at Melanie again

"Why the sudden interest? When we met in the gym, it sounded to me like your mind was already made up." Terry said

"Let's slow down for a minute." Bruce started "Tell us more about what happened. What exactly did Ten do?" Bruce asked

"She robbed Brittany's Jewelries in Star City. Apparently they had some one of a kind set of diamonds, and she robbed them both in broad daylight. Took out all of the cops before they knew what hit them. After she took me out, my friend Chloe found me and called the paramedics who were able to revive me in time. So the point is that Ten has already made it personal. She was able to hit me because I was vulnerable. And now it's time for me to cover my openings. Starting with the outside."

"You know that it's gonna be dangerous. And you'll risk going over the edge again like you almost did last time." Terry said. "Are you sure this is what you want, Melanie?" Terry asked

"I don't know. Maybe it's not. But what I am sure of is this. I couldn't stand to be face to face with that shade of my past. I'm not going to stand by and watch that copycat remind me of that monster that I used to be. I'm asking politely for you help now, but regardless of what you two say, I'm going after her. Even if I'm doing it alone."

Bruce stood up out of his chair and looked down at Melanie. Even though Melanie had to look up to look him in the eye, her face didn't budge. She was determined.

"I mean it, Bruce. You taught me so much the last time we were both here. And now is as good of a time as any to put it all to use. I'm not saying that I'm gonna stay Batgirl for any longer than it takes to bring Ten to justice. But until then, there's not a thing you can do to stop me."

There was a long silence. Wayne walked past both Melanie and Terry and stood with his back facing the both of them. He turned his head to the side.

"Okay. Let's get your suit."

-x-

Melanie walked down the stone floor of the Batcave with a remote in her hand. Bruce Wayne's instructions were subsequently being heard as Melanie was walking.

"But first, Terry's going to need your help on another assignment. We need to get some information out of Paxton Powers." Wayne had said.

Melanie held the remote up and pressed the only button on there. A hole in the ground opened, and a big capsule rose out of the ground.

"No doubt he would have cracked down on security since Ten's robbery. Your job is to find out what kind of a weapon he gave to Mad Stan, and see what you can do to retrieve it. Since he's away at a conference tonight, our best bet will be to strike tomorrow." Wayne said.

The capsule rose to her height and the doors slid open. She saw her black and yellow suit stare her in the face.

Melanie stared at it intently.

"Welcome back."

-x-

Star City Gymnasium

Melanie was doing a set of sit-ups and Chloe was spotting her by holding down her feet. Melanie's gym bag was behind her head as a cushion. She had gotten a good dozen sit ups done before Chloe began talking.

"You know, when you told me that we were going to have a girls' outing today, this isn't exactly what I had in mind."

"You're the one who suggested coming." Melanie said between grunts

"Yeah…as a joke. Come on Mel, you're letting this thing get to your head. What are the chances that you'll even run into that copycat again?"

Melanie sat up and looked directly at Chloe

"You don't understand, Chloe. To see someone else wearing a suit that you used to wear to do evil….there's no feeling like it. It brings back all of my memories of my father and family…of the Royal Flush Gang. How we robbed all of those innocent people. How we put so many people in danger on a daily basis. But worst of all, how I even went as far as to…."

Melanie didn't finish. She froze in her words. Chloe looked directly at her. "I know Mel."

"Then you know why I can't just let this pass. I need to be stronger."

Melanie continued the sit ups. Chloe hung her head.

"I feel for you Mel. I really do…"

Melanie did sit-ups for a minute before Chloe spoke up again.

"Melanie, come on. Let's at least take a break."

She stopped, while panting heavily.

"Please. We'll go outside and get some fresh air. It looks like you can use it."

Melanie nodded her head

"Alright."

"Well, well well." Melanie looked up and saw Kate standing over her. "It's good to see that someone's still up and at it in the gym."

Melanie stood up to Kate's height.

"Kate. I didn't see you at work today."

Melanie looked down and saw that she had a cast over her right arm.

"What's the cast for?"

"None of your business, Walker!" Kate rashly said.

Melanie flashed back to the jeweler shop when she punched Ten with the rock hard necklace and Ten shielded it with her arm, but had to take attention to it after the hit.

Melanie froze

"I'm just curious is all." She said

Kate exhaled

"A biking accident. It happened yesterday evening and I had a very minor fracture in a bone in here. So it's nothing serious…just an overnight thing…which means that I'll just work on legs today, and by tomorrow I should have it off in time pound you if you stick your head in my business again."

She made a fist with her good arm.

"We clear, blondie?"

"Crystal…" Melanie said quietly.

Kate walked away and Chloe stood up. She put her arm around Melanie's shoulder and moved away quickly.

"Mel, who was that?" She said with a whisper

"No one who you wanna meet."

"But girl, maybe I'm jumping the gun a little bit here, but didn't you say that when you ran into Ten yesterday, you injured her arm?"

That really made Melanie think. Not only did she notice it, but Chloe had picked up on it too.

"And from the way that girl looked and sounded, she reminded me an awful lot of that doppelganger from yesterday. Did you notice that?"

Melanie slowly nodded her head.

"So what are you gonna do?"

"Let's just get out of here." Melanie said

"Yeah, good call."

Melanie went back, zipped up her gym bag and threw it over her shoulder. She pulled out her cell phone from the side pocket.

"And speaking of calls…" Melanie played a voicemail. It was from Mr. Wayne. She listened for a minute and then tried to dial back.

"Ugh. I have no service in here. Can I use your phone really quick?"

"Sure thing, girl." She gave Melanie her cell phone and she called Wayne back. While she was waiting for him to answer Chloe put her arm on her shoulder.

"Mel. I just want you to know that I'm here for you, alright? I know that this is all a lot for you, but just take it easy. I don't want you beating yourself up over anything."

"I appreciate it, Chlo." Melanie hung up the phone and handed it back to her.

"No answer?" Chloe asked

"No, it went straight to voicemail. But my guess from that message that I got is that it's time for me to go."

"Go? Go where?"

"I have some work to do in Gotham City. Come on, I'll drive you back."

Melanie began out of the gym

"Whatever you say…" Chloe followed her out.

-x-

It was now night time.

There was a building that towered over Powers' estate. Batman landed on top of it. He spoke through his com-link.

"You weren't kidding, Wayne. They've really amped up the security of this place. I don't know how we're gonna sneak in unnoticed."

"You two will figure something out." Wayne remarked from the other side.

"Speaking of which. Where is she? She should have been here by now!" Batman said.

"HEY!"

Batman turned around. One of Paxton's security men was on the roof with him. Batman must have missed him on his way down.

"You're not authorized to be up here!"

He pointed his gun at him. Just then the man fell over unconscious. He had a black and yellow dart lodged on the back of his neck.

Soon after, Batgirl flew overhead, and then landed on the roof next to Batman.

"Miss me?" She asked

"Could you not be such a diva! For all you know someone might have seen you up there! And what did you do to him?"

"Relax, Batman. It's called a tranquilizer dart. Wayne gave them to me. They're extremely fast acting, just shoot a guy in the back of the neck with these and he's out for hours in a matter of seconds."

"What? Wayne never gave me tranquilizer darts like that."

"Then take my last two. Knowing how clumsy you are, you'll probably need them.

She dropped them in Batman's glove.

"uh…thanks…" Batman put them in his utility belt.

"I almost forgot about all of these gadgets." Batgirl said. "The batarang launcher, the smoke bombs, the electric tasers…"

She clenched her fists

"It's good to be back."

Batman slowly smiled

"It's good to have you back. Even if it's just for a little bit."

Batgirl cracked a smile too.

"So what'd you get from your angle?" Batman said as he turned to look over the ledge again.

"Nothing. Nothing but alarms and ticked off security guards. This may be a bit harder than we expected. There are hardly any openings."

Batgirl activated her batarang launcher that was attached to her wrist. She set the power setting to '7', and pointed it down towards the house.

"So I say we make one."

"That won't be necessary." She and Batman could both hear Wayne speak through the radio.

"If you both go about half a mile counter-clockwise around the perimeter, you'll there's a blind spot in security. I recommend that you go through there."

"Fine." Batgirl drew it back. "Have it your way."

"Wait for my signal before you go. That goes for both of you." Wayne said.

"Suit yourself." Batgirl said.

"Thanks for helping us out with this." Terry said

"Yeah. It's a shame that I had to leave Chloe back in Star City like that, but duty calls. She thinks I'm taking the whole thing a little too hard."

"This friend of yours, Chloe. How come I've never heard of her?"

"Well as you already know, I didn't have many friends growing up since me and my family moved around so much. She's probably the closest thing to a real friend that I've ever had. But we parted ways a long time ago."

"Why's that?"

"I don't think you wanna know. It may be a little much for you to hear."

"I think I can handle it." Batman said with a smirk

"You really think that you know me, don't you Terry? If you knew the kind of things that I used to be involved in…"

"I know I can handle it because I've been there too. So trust me on this one."

Batgirl looked down

"I met Chloe back when my family and I lived in a really bad neighborhood. One of the only friends I've ever made. But we weren't what you would say, your typical 'let's do each others hair and then go to the mall' friends. At least not back then. We used to commit crimes together. She started out just covering for me and helping me behind the scenes, but it wasn't long before she was on the field stealing stuff with me. It's so sad. She was a normal person and I was such a bad influence on her. But for the month or so that we were together, we formed a sister-like bond. She really looked up to me. I never had a sister in the Royal Flush Gang, but Chloe took that place. And for a while, that was the story of our lives. I was Ten of the Royal Flush gang, and it wasn't uncommon for her to be my accomplice when my family wasn't able to pull of a heist with me."

"So what happened?"

"What do you think happened? Me and my family moved again to run away from the police as usual. We had to move so suddenly, that I left without so much as a goodbye. I was instructed by my family not to talk to or write to her since. But from what I did hear, she went straight since I left, and stopped stealing. So at least that was one relief. Even though our whole sisterly bond flew out the window, my bad influence on her hitched a ride and left with it. It was only last week when I heard from her again that she was coming up to Star City to visit. I hadn't seen her since me and the gang left."

"It seems like she's pretty happy to be with you now though."

"Yeah. I guess so."

Wayne's voice came in through the com-link

"Move in. Now."

"Let's go." Batgirl said.

-x-

There had to be half a dozen security men in the front of the house alone.

Batman and Batgirl dropped down behind a large bush.

"Remember, Batgirl. Our top priority is to stay hidden. We can't afford to get caught. Understood?"

"I've been sneaking into maximum security banks before I knew how to multiply and divide two digit numbers. I think I'll be set."

"Alright. On my cue. Ready…go!" Batman said

Both Batman and Batgirl stood up. And it didn't take long for either of them to realize that their plan was already a failure. All of the security guards, about ten in number, were surrounding them with their guns pointed.

"Well…that went well" Batgirl said sarcastically

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Batman who's come to spoil the day. And it looks like the rumors from months ago were true. There is a little Batgirl in town." The guard in front said. He paced towards them.

"All that means for me is twice as much trash to sweep off the floor once this is all over." He finished. The other security guards closed in on them too.

"I hope you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty…" Batman said, while backing up into Batgirl.

"You kidding?" Batgirl said. "I've been waiting to use these toys all day."

The first security guard charged into them. Both Batman and Batgirl simultaneously threw their respective smokebombs on the floor, causing a thick smokescreen.

Through the thick fog, Batgirl grabbed the frontmost guard by the neck and attached a black and yellow cylinder shaped device to the back of his jacket. The cylinder mechanically extended two yellow, bat-shaped wings, and then immediately shot out rocket fuel which propelled the guard straight up into the air along with it. She turned the dial on her belt and activated her jet boosters, which launched her forward into another guard. At the same time, Batman leapt forward and kicked one of the guards in the face. He turned around and found himself facing a guard with a heavy, black rod. The guard swung once at him, and Batman jumped over it. He swung again and Batman ducked down. While he was down, he spun around with his leg and tripped the guard off of his feet, which made him come crashing down.

One of the guards who was behind Batman began firing his machine gun at him. Batman ran forward and ducked behind a bush. He watched as the bullets whisked the pieces of twigs and leaves away and into the air. He waited for a few seconds, and then extended his wings and then flew over to the guards. He flew right over the two of them, but before he passed over them, he grabbed each of their heads with one hand, and knocked them together. They both fell down to the ground. Batman tumbled on his landing and then found himself squatting down.

Batgirl was fistfighting against two guards. She was holding her own pretty well, but the guards were gaining the upper hand. One of the guards hit her from the back and made her stumble forward. The guard in front of her let out a light laugh, and she looked down at his clenched fist. He drove it into her and caused her to fly backwards. She flew backwards and found herself laying on the floor and looking up at them. Both the guards paced towards her. They were each walking around the flowing water fountain.

"Don't even try to do anything stupid." One of the guards said.

"I'm not." Batgirl replied. She quickly set the power setting on her batarang launcher to '10', the maximum power level. The '10' that appeared on the screen was red and blinking. She shot it forward straight ahead. The guards ducked for cover and the batarang hit the water fountain, and immediately destroyed it, causing the stone and debris to shoot up in the air. The water began spraying everywhere, and the guards couldn't keep their eyes open. Batgirl flew over and took out the guard on her left with her fist and leapt up and kicked the other guard down to the ground also.

Another guard punched the back of her head. This guard appeared to be the burliest of them all. Batgirl fell on her knees as she grabbed the back of her head to help ease the pain. The guard locked his arms around her from the back, effectively immobilizing her arms.

"They warned you…" He said. His muscles on his face contracted as he squeezed harder on her chest, causing her to yell out in pain.

Then, suddenly he let go. He stumbled back. He was punched again from the side, but couldn't see who was doing it. He was hit again, causing him to spin around and face Batgirl.

"Behind you." She said

The guard looked behind, and saw Batman come out of camoflogue mode in front of him.

"Bad move."

He gestured his head towards Batgirl, and the guard turned around again. Batgirl punched him in the face and caused him to stumble back. Batman and Batgirl stood next to each other with their fists clenched out. The guard charged forward and the two of them moved around him and fought for a little bit. Batman looked up in the air.

"Retreat!"

He and Batgirl jumped backwards away from him.

"What are you, cowards? I'm not done with you ye…"

He didn't finish. The guard who Batgirl had originally sent flying up in the air had now come back down. And he landed on top of the guard they were fighting. They both grunted as they were unconscious on the ground.

Batman and Batgirl put their arms down

"Well…that was a workout." Batgirl said

"We're not done yet." Batman looked up to the top floor of Paxton's house, where his bedroom was.

-x-

Paxton was sitting at his massive glass table in his bedroom on his laptop. He was looking at a 3 dimensional schematic of a machine. He clearly looked frustrated about something. A notification popped up on his computer. He double clicked on it.

It read, 'Archives of M. Hagen and P. Isley have been successfully uploaded and transferred to internal database.'

He double clicked out of the notification and continued reading the schematic.

Suddenly, his computer slammed shut in front of him. Batgirl stood in front.

"What the!" He yelled

"Three nights ago you sold a highly hazardous weapon to Mad Stan and then asked for its retrieval. I wanna know what it was, and how to get it back. Now." Batgirl said.

"Who do you think you are barging into my place like this? How did you get past security?"

"They're all taking a nap right now. Which means that I'm the one who you're gonna tell how to stop this weapon from getting unleashed."

"Great. As if we didn't have enough of a pest control problem in this city…" Paxton started

He suddenly pulled out a gun and pointed it at her. Batgirl slowly put her hands up.

"It's a shame. Batman would have found a way to stop me by now. Too bad he decided to send his kid sister after me. Sorry toots, I don't answer to you."

A batarang hit his hand right before he pulled the trigger. Paxton grabbed his hand as he dropped the gun. Batman stepped out of the shadows. The first thing Paxton saw was his red bat symbol on his chest before he stepped into the light.

"That wouldn't be a good idea." Batman said. "This is serious, Powers. Tell us about the weapon."

"Or what?" Paxton said with a smile.

Paxton grunted as Batman grabbed him by his shirt and hung him outside of his window.

"Now tell us." Batman said

"Don't make me laugh, Batman. You and I both know that you would never actually drop me from here. Unless you're about ready to prove me wrong."

Batman scowled at him. Paxton simply smiled.

After a short pause, Batman exhaled and threw him back into the house.

"You're right. I wouldn't."

Paxton adjusted his jacket, and raised his eyebrow with a smile. Batman then stepped out of the way.

"But she would." Batman said

Batgirl grabbed him once again and hung him out the window. Except instead of holding him by his shirt, she hung him by his foot. Paxton hung upside down and watched his keys and personal belongings fall on the ground under him.

"You're crazy! Do you have any idea how it feels to be hung by your leg this this?"

"I think I have a slight idea. Now tell me! What did you give Mad Stan, and why did he attack you?"

"I won't talk. You'll never make me talk."

Batgirl let go of her pinky finger. Paxton felt himself lower.

"Well?"

"I…" He started

Before he finished, she let go of her ring finger. Paxton could feel how unstable his support from her hand was. Only her thumb and two pointer fingers were holding him up.

"You still wanna play games with me?" She asked.

He could feel her slipping her two other fingers off.

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell! Just let me back in." Paxton yelled

She threw him inside and he hit the floor. He sat up.

"Well?" She asked

"I sold him a napalm bomb."

"A what? Are you crazy!" Batman yelled. "Of all people to sell that kind of a thing to, you gave it to Mad Stan?"

"He and his people paid good money for it. It was something that my father and a friend of his had been working on, and kept stashed away in the Wayne-Powers storage room. Stan caught wind that he was involved in it, asked me for it, and I delivered. It was a simple business transaction."

"Do you have any idea what he could do with that thing?"

"Relax. I may have sold it to him, but I wasn't stupid about it. I intentionally withheld the trigger to the bomb so that he couldn't use it."

"So you cheated him out of his money?" Batgirl asked. "How did he not notice when he bought it?"

"Because he's a darn fool, that's how. There was no way I was gonna put that kind of firepower in the mouth of a dog like him, so I went through the deal, collected the money, and expected him to call it a fluke and put it in a stockpile with all the rest of his broken explosives."

"Brilliant plan. I can see that it turned out well." Batman said sarcastically

"I didn't expect him to be this adamant about getting the trigger. He buys explosives from people like this all the time that end up not working. I don't know what makes this one so special."

"How powerful is it?" Batgirl asked

"From what I understand, he was only interested in burning down one building with it. But given the nature of the explosive, it has enough firepower to burn down all of Gotham City." Batgirl's eyes widened.

"Where's the trigger now?" Batman asked

"It's currently in the hands of someone who I can trust. Someone who understands how important it is to keep that thing away from Mad Stan."

"What's his name?" Batgirl asked

Paxton smiled

"If I told you that it wouldn't be a secret, would it?"

"Why you…" Batgirl said as she held out her fist

"Save it…" Batman said, putting his arm in front of her. "So is the trigger the only thing stopping Mad Stan from activating the bomb?"

"Well…originally, the trigger itself needed to be activated by a computerized key code that only I had, but…"

"But what?" Batman asked

"That's what that bandit stole from my house the other day. That Royal Flush gang has been nothing but trouble to me over the last few years. So I don't know what that Royal Flusher wanted with my key codes, but now she has them."

"But…if Ten has the codes and Stan has the weapon, then that must mean …" Batgirl looked at Batman.

"No doubt about it." Batman said. "Ten and Mad Stan are in it together."


	4. Exposed

There was a small, poorly lit room with nothing but a dirty table, a telephone on the wall and a few plastic chairs. It almost seemed way too tiny to hold the three burly men who were inside. Mad Stan and two of his thugs.

Mad Stan was aggressively pacing back and forth in front of the table, and his two thugs were sitting down.

The one with the Russian accent spoke up.

"We've been talking in circles. I don't understand why we're still discussing this."

"Because one way or another, we're gonna devise a way to squeeze that remote control out of Powers." The other thug said. "We just need to do it from the right angle."

"No matter what angle we do it from, he'll be onto us. I say that we just accept the fact that we're never getting a hold of it. For all we know, Wachowski could have spilled all the beans to that police commissioner by now. We're done. End of story." The Russian thug said

The other thug hung his head and looked up.

"You've barely said a word since we got here, Stan." He said. "What do you think?"

Mad Stan stopped in his tracks. He looked at the thug and squeezed out a smile and a short laugh.

"I'm glad you asked."

He ran over and kicked down the table. The two thugs quickly jumped up to their feet and backed up. Stan put his boot on top of the upside down table.

"Clearly, Plan A was something of an explosive failure, if you will. All thanks to black and red bat."

He grabbed the Russian thug by the shirt and pinned him to the wall with both of his hands. The other thug backed up slowly.

"Of course, none of that would have happened had you two have kept a better eye on him."

Stan shrugged

"Nevertheless. It's a good thing that we always have Plan B."

Stan let out a light gasp

"oh wait…THERE WAS NO PLAN B!"

Mad Stan screamed the last half into the thug's ear, and threw him across the room and into the other thug. He pulled a grenade out of his pocket, walked over to the thugs, both of whom were groaning on the floor.

The thugs cautiously eyed the grenade in his hand. What was he going to do with it?

Suddenly, the phone in the room rang. Everyone was confused as to why anyone was calling that room. Stan walked over to it and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"I have the trigger to the napalm bomb. And I'm willing to share my resources should you cooperate with me."

A female voice spoke from the other side.

"Huh? Who are you? How do you know where I am?"

"Let's just say that I'm a friend, and that I have my sources."

It was revealed that Ten's mouth was talking through a cell phone on the other side. She was on her card glider hovering over the small building that Stan and his men were in.

"Anyway, I have a proposal. A partnership if you will." Ten said

"I'm listening…" Mad Stan said

"All I'll need is for you to put the bomb in place, and I'll set it off at your signal by remote. It's as simple as that." Ten said

"What? I don't even know who you are!"

"We're two people with the same goal in mind. We'll keep it at that.

"Wait. How do I know that this isn't some police sanctioned set-up? How do I know that you're the real deal?" Stan yelled

"I guess you don't. But I'll deliver. So do we have a deal, or do you want that expensive bomb of yours to collect dust in some basement?"

Mad Stan didn't respond at first, but after a moment, he slowly smiled.

"See you at the fireworks." He said.

"Good. I'll be in touch." She hung up.

Stan hung up the phone and walked back over to his thugs, who were just beginning to get up.

"Gentlemen."

They looked up at him. He had a massive smile on his face.

"Plan B is now in session."

He laughed historically as he took the pin out of the grenade and dropped it on the floor. His thugs watched the grenade roll with their eyes wide open, and then they quickly got up and ran out of the building. Stan ran out after them laughing.

Ten flew away on her glider as the building exploded behind her.

-x-

"A napalm bomb?" Bruce asked

Both Melanie and Terry were in their costumes, but with their hoods off. They were in front of the computer in the Batcave.

"That's right." Melanie said. "He said it was something that Wayne-Powers had been developing, but it was eventually put in storage."

"It wasn't anything that was made under my jurisdiction. But now that you mention it, I think I know what you're talking about."

He pressed a few buttons on the computer. The same schematic that Paxton was looking at showed up on the screen.

"Hey, that looks a little like that drawing that Powers was looking at on his computer."

"It's probably identical. This was one of the many rogue projects that I personally shut down after I learned that Derek Powers was manufacturing nerve gas with our company some time ago. He was involved in green lighting the production of weapons like these behind my back."

"It seems like Paxton was telling us the truth." Terry said. "This whole structure looks like something that can be really dangerous."

"Dangerous is an understatement." Melanie said. "I know quite a bit about explosives and the way they work from my days with the Royal Flush gang, and a mechanism like this is more than enough affect all of Gotham and have backlash in any neighboring counties. It's a shock that something like this was even produced underground."

"Did you find out where Mad Stan was planning on detonating the bomb?" Bruce asked

No. But wherever he's detonating it, Paxton said it was operated by remote, so our priority needs to be to get it back. Do you have any idea who Powers may have given it to?" Terry asked

"I don't. But I'll look into it. Bruce said. He spun his chair around and leaned on his cane.

"Good work you two. It's getting late, so I suggest you both find your way home and turn it in the day."

"Don't you mean turn it in for the nig…" Melanie started. Then she checked her phone. It was already 6 in the morning and probably light outside. And she had a missed text message.

"That's one thing that I'll never miss about this job. All of the late nights…"

She read her text message. It was from Chloe. It read, 'In the area, so let me know where to pick you up.'

"Looks like I have to go boys. I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow."

She walked up out of the Batcave. Bruce cracked a grimace.

"She's learning. Isn't she?" Bruce asked

"A little bit too well…It's amazing to think of how far she's come. It seemed like it was only yesterday when we were…" Terry stopped. "Anyway. Yeah, she's getting better."

They both looked down and noticed that Ace dragged something out from under the computer. It was Melanie's gym bag.

"Looks like someone left her gym bag here."

Ace began barking and biting at the bag trying to get in.

"Geez, calm down, Ace, it's just a girl's gym bag!" Terry exclaimed

"No. Look." Bruce said.

As Ace kept barking, Bruce picked up the bag and set it on his lap. He opened the zipper. Terry looked inside.

Bruce looked sternly at Terry as his eyes fixated on what was inside of the bag. By the time Terry looked back up at Bruce, he had a serious look as well.

"Get her." Bruce said.

-x-

Melanie waited outside Bruce Wayne's mansion. She had her backpack on her back and her phone in her hand while she was waiting at the roadside.

It wasn't long before she saw her car coming down from a distance. The car stopped in front of her and the window wound down. Chloe was in the driver's seat.

"Hey Mel. Woah!"

She looked at Wayne's mansion

"Now this is house I tell ya. It was really nice of Bruce Wayne to invite you over to his house. Maybe he has his eyes set on you for that promotion down in Star City."

"Hopefully. Hey, thanks for picking me up, Chlo. I know it's early."

"Why don't you hop in and we'll take off."

She put her backpack in the passengers seat. Terry held Melanie's gym back and walked up behind her.

"Melanie."

She turned around.

"Hey Terry! Here to see me off? Oh, and Terry, this is Chloe, Chloe Terry."

Chloe waved.

"Pleasure to meet you." She said.

"You too. Melanie I have to talk to you about something." He held up her gym bag.

"Oh you have my bag! I must have left it in there. I'll just take that off your hands…"

Terry moved the bag away from her

"I mean it."

"Listen, Terry, it's not really the best ti…"

"Now." He said sternly

Melanie looked embarrassed, and looked back at Chloe.

"Give me just a sec, will ya, Chlo?"

"Take all the time you need." She said

Terry and Melanie walked a few feet away.

"What's this all about?" Melanie asked with her arms folded.

"You tell me."

Terry emptied the contents her gym bag onto the floor. Her gym shorts, sweatpants, shirts, and headphones fell on the sidewalk

"Hey! That's my stuff!" Melanie yelled.

Just then, the last thing fell down on top of it all. The red one of a kind diamond that had been stolen from days before.

"Clearly not all of it is." Terry said

Melanie looked shocked. She looked back and noticed that Chloe was watching as well.

"Terry. I have no idea how…"

"Really, now?" Terry said.

"Terry…you don't think that I stole this do you?"

"Wouldn't be the first time you betrayed me like this."

Melanie looked extremely shocked

"Terry, listen, I…"

"No Melanie, you listen. Melanie, I trusted you. I thought you had changed. I really did this time. Even at times when the old man didn't believe in you, I stuck up for you. I'd always be saying Melanie's different. She's a good person…"

Terry stopped

"She's nothing like her father." He finished. "Apparently I was wrong."

Melanie became furious

"Terry, you have no right to tell me that! I have no idea how that ended up in my bag!"

"Only two people were at the robbery when the diamond was stolen. Ten and you. Or should I bother believing that they're not still the same person."

"Are you telling me, that you think that I'm still Ten? Are you!"

"You're the one who's been exposed, Melanie. What else do you expect me to think?"

"After everything that we've been through? All of it means nothing to you, doesn't it?"

"I don't know what to believe about you anymore."

"Get this through your head Terry. This has to be some sort of mistake."

"The only mistake here is ever letting you get close to me again. And it's one that won't happen again."

"Hey!"

Chloe had come out of the car and stood next to Melanie.

"I don't know who you are but you can't talk to my friend like that." Chloe yelled

"It's alright, Chlo. I can handle this."

She turned to Terry

"I can't believe you. Right at the first sign of trouble, you're ready to blame me for everything again. If you don't believe me, that's fine, Terry. I guess I should have stopped expecting you to act like a friend a long time ago. You and Mr. Wayne can have fun with your job from now on. I'm out."

She shook her head.

"I can't believe I ever dated you."

She turned around and walked to the car. Chloe followed her in.

Terry looked at the bag, clothes, and diamond on the floor. He looked back up and watched Melanie's car zoom away.

-x-

Chloe was driving and Melanie was sitting in the passenger's seat. The car had been dead silent for several minutes.

Chloe eventually broke the silence

"You know, Mel I…"

"I don't wanna talk right now, Chloe."

She was quiet for a second

"Melanie, I know that you're upset. I don't know who that guy was busting on my girl like that. I wish I would have thought to give him a knuckle sandwich."

"It's alright, Chloe. Terry Mcginnis isn't your problem." She said it quietly

"This Terry guy. What I'd do to…"

She stopped in her mid-sentence

"Wait. Mcginnis? You mean the one who you and the gang…"

"Chloe, I said I don't want to talk about it."

"I see…" Chloe said quietly

There was an awkward silence

"I do have something that I think will make you feel better though." Chloe said after a minute

"Which is…"

Chloe exhaled.

"After we talked the other day, I did a little more research on this Kate Robinson girl from that gym of yours."

"And…"

"And she is without a doubt the Ten doppelganger."

"How do you know this?""

"From what I call pure luck, I saw Ten again in Star City. I don't think a lot of other people saw her, since she wasn't causing any trouble. She was on her way home. And when I followed her back…"

"It was Kate's house..."

"Yeah…Ten came in, Kate came out. She didn't even bother wipe off the bright red lipstick from the costume. I was thinking of submitting the report to the police, but I thought you should be the first to know."

"It makes sense. Kate's had it out for me for a while now, and what better way to get back at me than to wear the one suit that I can't stand and then try to kill me with it. She could have planted the diamond in my bag while I was at the gym, too. And the cast over her arm…yeah. She fits the bill."

"Sorry, Mel. I really didn't want to tell you until later, but given the circumstances I…"

"I understand. Thanks for letting me know. But there's no way that I'll get anyone else to believe that. For all Terry and the rest of Gotham cares, I'm still Ten. And I don't know if anything I do will ever change that."

Chloe hung her head and closed her eyes. Then her eyes shot open.

"Maybe there is one thin…well no. No, it's too dangerous." She started.

"What?" Melanie turned her head

"I don't know. It may be asking way too much of you."

"What were you going to say?"

Chloe sighed

"If you could conclusively prove that Kate's the new Ten, then people will see that you're not."

"And how would I do that?"

Chloe asked Mel a question

"Do you know if Kate's supposed to be home tonight?"

"Kate's supposed to be working late today. And if she's out committing crimes as Ten, she should be away anyway. Why?"

Chloe nodded and then spoke

"The Ten and Kate switch isn't the only thing that I saw at her house. I happened to see her spoils of war. Which included the blue diamond that went along with the red one that Terry found in your bag. All of her stolen junk was in a small silver box stashed away in some cupboard somewhere."

Melanie looked up

"Are you sure, Chlo?"

She nodded

"Positive. I saw it at the exhibit too, and that was the one. But here's where you come in. If you can somehow use your skills that you learned as Ten and sneak into her house and retrieve the diamond, you could return the set to the original owner, and use that as a way to win back their trust. For the first time, they'll all listen to you, and when they do, you can let them know who the real thief was."

"Chloe, I don't think that's very smart. If I get caught taking that thing without a warrant from the police, it's straight up stealing."

"No. It's taking back property that was already stolen. It's a way to clear your name, and take down Ten for good. If we do this the old school way and get the Commissioner involved, it may take weeks for them to get a warrant, and by then, Ten would have moved on. This is the perfect opportunity, and it's right up your alley. Something that you can do well, girl!"

Melanie looked down at the road as Chloe drove. Chloe spoke again.

"Maybe it is a stupid idea, but it was the first thing that I thought of. Yeah, it's a bit shady, but nothing that you can't do. The way I see it, this is the kind of stuff that that Batman clown does every night in Gotham City. What makes you any different?"

Melanie crossed her arms and looked down at her backpack, which had the Batgirl suit inside of it. She continued to stare intently at it.

-x-

It was nighttime.

Mad Stan tapped his foot and his watch simultaneously at a rapid pace. He was on top of a very tall roof.

Just then, a flying hovercar drove by. The two thugs were in the front seat, and a massive, heavy, tubular object was laying across the back seat with a small brown cloth covering it.

"Look what the cat dragged in. You're late."

The thugs carried the weapon out of the backseat and hopped onto the roof.

"How's security?" Mad Stan asked

"They shouldn't be bugging us." One of his thugs finished

A shot was shown of the security guards stripped down to their undergarments and tied up

"Well, let's see that beauty." Stan said.

The thugs both struggled to push it upright since it was so heavy.

"Come on boys, put your backs into it!"

They eventually got it to stand.

Stan crossed his arms.

"Now that's art." He said

"So now what?" One of the thugs asked

"The moment our friend on the other end activates this, that should start the 1 minute countdown. And when that ticker hits zero, this whole building goes up in flames. Just the way it should be. But no acting until we get our cue." Stan said

"What if Batman shows up?"

"We treat him like we would any old bat." Stan started

Stan clenched his fist. His knuckles audibly cracked.

"We squash him." He said with a smile

-x-

Batgirl landed next to a fire hydrant. Kate's house was on the other side of the street.

"This must be the place. The location checks out." Batgirl said out loud.

She sighed. "I can't believe I'm actually doing this. But Chloe was right. It's the only way."

A truck passed by the street, and by the time it passed, Batgirl was gone.

Next thing, Batgirl was next to an air vent that escaped from the house.

"What I'd do for some of that camoflogue that Batman has…"

She reached into her utility belt and pulled four tiny gadgets. She placed them in the four corners of the air vent, over each of the bolts that fastened it in. She pressed a button on her belt. Soon after, smoke escaped out from under the gadgets. They had melted the bolts of the air vent. Batgirl pulled the air vent out with ease

"Of course, can't complain when you have that feature."

She slid inside.

She found herself in the kitchen when she exited the air vent. She snuck into the room next door.

She found herself looking at a room full of cupboards. She remembered what Chloe had told her.

'All of her stolen junk was in a small silver box stashed away in some cupboard somewhere.'

A small silver box. That was what she was looking for.

Suddenly she heard barking. Kate's dog had run into the room and barked at her. Batgirl tried to "shh" it several times, but it kept barking louder.

"Sorry about this…"

She pointed the fist of her suit at the dog, and white gas escaped from it. The dog went to sleep almost immediately.

"Gotta do this quick."

She changed the settings on her mask so that she had x-ray vision. She looked through the different cupboards for half a minute until she came across one that looked promising. She opened it, and saw exactly what she was expecting to find. A small silver box, just big enough to fit a priceless diamond inside of it.

Batgirl turned around and ran.

-x—

The batwing flew over the citytops of Gotham

Batman was flying it and looking out into the city. Batman smashed his fists against the dashboard.

"Ugh. Another dead end!"

"No luck?" Wayne said over the intercom

"Absolutely none. This is my third time going around whole city and not so much as a peep out of Mad Stan."

"I never pegged Mad Stan as someone who was particularly good at covering his tracks. He can't be too hard to find. Keep looking." Bruce said

"I just don't get it. If I were a maniac out to burn up the whole city, where would I try to secretly plant my bomb?"

"I don't know if he's trying to do it in secret…" Wayne said

"Come again?"

"Mad Stan's never been one for covert operations. He likes the attention, and wants an audience. A full on diva if you will. He's not out to rattle a few cages undercover. If he makes a move he'll want everyone to know it and everyone to see it…" Wayne started

Batman's eyes widened.

"Of course…" Batman said under his breath. He punched some coordinates into the computer.

"But where would he go…" Wayne asked himself

Batman squeezed his eyes

"I know exactly where."

"What? Where?"

He turned the batwing around and flew it in the opposite direction.


	5. Showdown

Batgirl escaped the house and flew away. She flew all the way until she was by a boat dock. There was a thick fog over the giant lake. To her left were a couple of parked boats. She looked around. It seemed like no one had followed her all the way out there.

She held the box in front of her.

"I guess this is it. Now to give this to…"

"Me."

Just as she heard the voice, she was shot by a laser behind her. Batgirl face planted on the ground, and the box flew up in midair and was caught by the one who spoke. Batgirl slowly turned around and saw Ten float down from behind her. She was standing on her signature glider. Ten looked a little bit shocked to see Batgirl.

"Batgirl?"

Batgirl grunted as she got on her knees and prepared to stand

"Surprised to see me?"

"What are you doing with the box? There's no way you could have known that Kate had the diamond. Unless…"

Batgirl stood back up to her feet. She grabbed onto her hood and pulled it off. Melanie stared straight at Ten.

Ten gasped lightly. "You. It can't be. You're Batgirl?"

"It's a two way street, Ten. There's only one way that you could have known to have expected me to take it."

"What do you mean? You were stealing from my house."

"You can save the act. One of the perks of having a Batsuit is that I have 24 hour access to the security cameras in Wayne Industries, so I know for a fact that Kate is at the office. You're not her. Which leaves only one other person who knew that I would be there."

Melanie scowled.

"The gig's up Chlo."

Ten stood straight. Then she smiled lightly and took her mask off. Chloe was staring Mel right in the face.

"Well. I guess we all had our little secrets that we were keeping from each other, didn't we, Mel?"

"And the diamond?" Melanie asked

Chloe smiled. She opened the box, and shockingly, there was no diamond inside of it. Instead, the trigger to Paxton's napalm bomb rested in the box. The trigger was the shape of a rectangle, and had a small screen on the front. On the back of the trigger was a small, square shaped jack where a flash drive could be plugged in.

"So it was you all along. You're the one who planted the red jewel in my gym bag…"

"What can I say? I knew that when you found it, you'd come to me for help. And when you did, I just pointed you to Kate. The spat that you ended up having with Terry was just an added bonus I guess."

"But why Kate of all people? Why did she have the trigger to the napalm bomb in her house?"

"When Derek Powers was first developing the weapon, he entrusted the trigger to the person who was also involved with the project: Dr. Carl Robinson."

"Kate's father…"

"Precisely. And Derek Powers kept the codes to the trigger himself, which ended up getting passed down to Paxton."

"Which is what Ten was caught stealing a few nights ago…"

"Right you are. And when I set you up with that diamond, I fabricated a story about Kate being Ten, and convinced you that she had the blue diamond so that you'd hop in and steal the box for me. I knew that you were the only one skilled enough to take it."

"So you played me like a fool?"

"Not really. I just know you really well, Mel. And I knew that when the chips were down and push came to shove, you'd steal the 'diamond' to clear your name. You're a thief, Mel. And you'll always be Ten the Jewel thief."

"One question." Melanie said. "Why? Why would you do such a terrible thing to me?" Melanie asked

"A terrible thing? Mel, don't you understand? I'm trying to help you!"

"You have a funny way of showing it."

Chloe parked the card glider on the dock, and she hopped off and walked towards Melanie. She looked Melanie eye to eye.

"I always looked up to you like a sister, Mel. When you and the Royal Flush Gang left to go to Gotham City on business, it tore me. But I knew that you'd be alright, because out of everyone in the Royal Flush Gang, you were the best. You stood apart from all of your family members. No one was able to commit crimes the way you were able to. I admired you so much."

"Chloe, listen to me. You can't…"

"Until!" Chloe shouted over her. Her voice seemed to echo along the water. "Until I heard that you left the Royal Flush Gang while you guys were in Gotham. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. Why would you have left? You had it made! What could possibly have driven you to leave everything you knew? Your whole life was already set up ahead of you. What could have caused you to leave your successful life as Ten?"

"Because regardless of what paths are set up for us, we always have a choice Chloe. And I chose to leave my life as a thief, even if it cost me everything. Which it pretty much did. But what I don't understand is why you took the liberty to go around Gotham and Star City parading as Ten. And why you're getting mixed up with dangerous men like Mad Stan in order to burn down the city. It's not like you at all."

"I became Ten to bring you back to your senses, girl!" Chloe shouted.

"I can't believe this. I really thought you changed, Chloe. I thought that when I left, you gave up this silly life of crime."

"As far as the public was concerned, I did. But in secret, I was training myself. Reminding myself of your ways. Practicing so that I could become as good of a thief as you were. Ten is more than just a person, Mel. Ten is a symbol. And if you weren't going to carry on the legacy, I was more than willing to. For the time being, anyway. But that was then and this is now. I need the real Ten to come back and take my place. The real Ten must continue the legacy and carry the legacy. I've kept your shoes warm for long enough. Now it's time for the real Ten to step into them again."

Chloe held out her hand

"How about it, sis?"

Melanie looked down at her hand. Melanie's glove reached down to her hand, but Melanie grabbed Chloe's wrist and held it up to her face

"The answer is no. I carry a new symbol now, Chlo. And I'll never go back to the way I used to be."

Melanie pushed Chloe's hand away

"Then let me rephrase the question." Chloe said

She held out the rectangular shaped trigger in her hand. She took out the flash drive with the information from Paxton Powers' computer and plugged it into the back of the trigger. It was only seconds before all of the encryptions on the trigger were unlocked, and it showed a green, "Ready to detonate" text on the screen. She dropped the flash drove on the ground and stomped on it. Her thumb rested on the "detonate" button.

"Chloe! You have no idea what that thing is capable of! Why do you even want to set it off, anyway?"

"What a great question. You know what makes this weapon so remarkable, Mel? It's that this trigger will be able to activate the bomb from as much as hundreds of miles out. Which means that one touch of the button, and the bomb, which is currently being set up as we speak, goes boom."

Chloe exhaled

"This bomb is an incentive for you to come back to your senses and become Ten again. The police already know that you and Ten are one in the same. And I know that regardless of whether you're dawning the Ten suit or not, you aren't capable of having Ten tied to the burning of an entire city. Think of all of the media coverage. The rumors. The disappointed look on Terry's face. You could avoid all of that if you just say yes to me now."

"And all this time I thought you were my friend."

"I am your friend. Which is why I'm doing this for you. All I want is for you to toss that ridiculous Batgirl costume, and put on your real costume. Come back and be my sister again Mel…"

Melanie looked down at the trigger and then up at Chloe. Chloe seemed to be on the verge of tears. She held the trigger up.

"Or Gotham City gets the boot."

"Chloe, listen to yourself. This isn't like you! Put the trigger down!"

"Whether it takes one conversation or one burnt city to convince you to come back as Ten makes no difference to me, Mel."

Melanie paused

"Well?" Chloe started

Melanie hung her head.

"Think about it, girl." Chloe contined

Chloe walked closer to her

"What do you have to go back to? You've already lost your friend, chances are that you're gonna lose your job, and since I can testify that I just witnessed Batgirl stealing from a resident's house without a warrant from the police, you're looking at serious jail time either. That is, if anyone would quite care about that after your responsible for having an entire city erupt in flames. So what's it gonna be girl…"

Chloe put the trigger by Melanie's face

"Yes or no?"

Melanie hung her head

"You're already backed up into a corner, Mel. I've outsmarted you from every angle. There's no going back. There's only moving forward."

Melanie giggled lightly

"What's so funny?" Chloe asked.

"Your plan was really clever." Melanie said with a smile. "It must've take a long time for you to put together." Melanie said

"It was the only way." Chloe said, "I knew that you'd be impressed by it."

"Well that's where you're wrong, Chlo. I'm not impressed. Or surprised. I knew that it was you the whole time."

"What? How?" Chloe asked

"Ever since the robbery at the jewelry store, I knew that you and Ten had to have been connected somehow. Ten was only present when you fled the scene. You must have operated that explosive in the room by remote."

-x-

She flashed back to when Chloe put her arms behind her back at the exhibit. It was revealed that she was hiding a remote control behind her back, and pressed the button right before the explosion hit.

-x-

"It was a nice act pretending to have never seen me before when you pummeled the heck out of me in there, but there was another thing that I noticed. When I punched Ten with the stone necklace, I hit her with my right fist, meaning that she naturally blocked me with her left arm: the arm that was injured."

"What did that have to do with anything?" Chloe asked

"For one, Kate's right arm was fractured when I saw it, not her left, so I knew for a fact that it wasn't her. But your first mistake was lending me your jacket after you found me unconscious. Because next thing I knew, I had a bloody left arm without having any recollection of ever getting cut there."

-x-

She flashed back to when she held out her arms in front of Bruce and Terry.

'What about that cut on your arm?' Terry had asked

'I don't know where that's from…' Melanie had replied

-x-

"And since I had a friend who ran a blood analysis, the results showed that the blood on my left arm wasn't my blood type. But it was an exact match for yours. The blood from the punch must have smeared onto the arm of the jacket, and then back onto my arm. And it wasn't long before I figured that out. So Batman and I were already onto you from the beginning."

"Why you little…" Chloe started

"Wait. It gets better. Believe it or not, I saw the diamond in my gym back long before I was leaving Wayne's mansion. When I knelt down to zip it up, I saw a red stone peeping out of my gym clothes. Since I figured that Kate couldn't have done it that quickly, I was sure that Ten had to be you, and that you were trying to set me up. So I asked to use your cell phone, and put a micro tracker on it so that I could not only pinpoint your exact location at all times, but know who you were making calls out to and receiving them from. Including the call that you made to Mad Stan from your cell phone last night. So me and Terry staged a convincing fight while you were around so that you'd prompt me to go ahead with this, and so that I could catch you red-handed with the trigger."

"Impossible. How could you have planned all of that?"

"I guess you don't know me as well as you thought you did. Oh and about the whole not having a warrant thing, I cleared the whole thing with the police."

"No…" Chloe said

Melanie put her hood back on.

"And since I've been recording your entire confession through the Batsuit, I'd say that we're just about done here. You get all of that, Commsssioner Gordon?"

-x-

Commissioner Gordon had a pair of headphones that were plugged into a radio. She was listening in on the conversation from the passenger seat a police car.

"I read you, Batgirl." She took out her walkie talkie. "Attention all available units, move into these coordinates which I'm sending you now! We got her…"

-x-

Batgirl crossed her arms.

"Sorry Chlo, but in a few minutes this place will be swarming with cops. You're under arrest."

In a rage, Chloe screamed and punched Batgirl in the face. She swung up with her other arm and punched Batgirl in the chest. She reached up with her elbow and knocked Batgirl down to the ground.

Chloe ran over to her glider and hopped on it. It lifted off the ground, and took off over the lake. Batgirl got on her feet, extended her wings and flew after her.

-x-

The batwing flew over a few other buildings as it closed in on its destination.

Wayne Enterprises. The tallest building in the city.

Batman activated a few buttons on his computer, and he got a zoomed in image of the top of Wayne Enterprises.

"Just as I thought."

He saw that the weapon was stationed on the top of the building.

Batman parked the batwing on the roof and hopped out. He saw the napalm bomb right in front of him. He ran over and knelt down in front of it. He opened the front flap and looked down at the wires.

"Now to figure out which ones to cut."

Just then, Batman was hit hard from the back of his head. The side of his head slammed into the ground. Mad Stan was behind him holding a fire extinguisher. He threw it to the side as his two thugs appeared behind him.

"Don't play with toys that aren't yours, Batman. You could really get hurt." Stan said with a grin.

Mad Stan smiled as he grabbed Batman by the chest and held him up. There was no resistance, and Batman's head was flopping backwards, so Stan assumed he was unconscious. He wound back his other fist and prepared to punch him hard in the face.

Batman slipped his hand on his utility belt and pressed a button. A jolting shock emitted out of his Batsuit. Stan yelled in pain and dropped him on the ground. Batman stood straight.

"I should say the same to you. Shut off the bomb, Stan. A lot of people could get hurt."

Stan wiped his mouth as he stood up straight as well. He towered over Batman.

"You don't understand Batman. Large corporate establishments like Wayne Enterprises are the reason why the common man has no say in a city like this. Buildings like this better off as ashes in the ground."

"You don't get it, do you! That bomb has enough firepower to take out the whole of Gotham City. You'll destroy the building along with every person in the entire county. That includes you and me. Is that really what you want?"

"Well it's just as that old saying goes. When you can't catch one bat…"

Stan pulled out a big looking gun out of his utility belt. It was a miniature rocket launcher.

"You blow up the whole dang complex!" He laughed hysterically as he fired the rocket launcher at him.

"I wonder why I saw that coming…" Batman said quietly

He jumped back and threw a batarang at a very specific angle towards the rocket launcher. The batarang hit the rocket launcher dead on, and altered it course of travel. The rocket rose into the sky, and blew up in midair.

"I mean it, Stan! We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Shut it down!" Batman yelled

"Fine. Have it your way." Stan said. He tossed Batman the rocket launcher, and it landed on the ground in front of him. That's when Batman made a mistake. He looked down at it. By the time he looked up Stan was running towards him, Stan punched him in the face. Stan grabbed Batman by the arm and threw him over his shoulder and down at the floor. He wound back his foot and kicked Batman's side, causing him to roll over a couple times.

Stan looked back at his two thugs.

"Well don't just stand there! Get the bomb ready!" He spat

They ran over to the napalm bomb. One of them closed the door that Batman opened and the other adjusted some settings on the bomb's computer.

Batman laid on the ground as he watched Stan walk over to him. Stan cracked his knuckles and then cracked his neck.

"As for you and me, Batman…" Stan said with a smile. "We're gonna learn the true meaning of playtime."

-x-

Chloe flew away on her card glider and Batgirl kept following her. They were both flying over the lake, and could see the water rippling under them.

Batgirl eventually caught up and landed behind Chloe on the card glider and tapped her on the shoulder. Chloe turned around and Batgirl met her with a punch in the face. Chloe stumbled backwards as Batgirl walked up to her.

"It doesn't have to be like this, Chlo."

"Oh yeah, Mel. It does."

Chloe swung a punch at Batgirl and she ducked under it. Batgirl tried to spin around and trip her with her leg, but Chloe jumped up over it. Batgirl swung up with a successful uppercut, and Chloe swung around and punched Batgirl in the rib. They exchanged punches back and forth for several seconds. Batgirl tried to land another punch, but Chloe grabbed her arm and twisted it as hard as she could. Batgirl yelled in pain.

"Had enough?" Chloe asked.

"Not even close…" Batgirl replied

Chloe was grabbing her arm with the batarang launcher on it. Melanie used her other arm to adjust the power setting to "2" and then shot the batarang out at Chloe at point blank. It wasn't enough power to do significant damage to her, but it was enough to slightly cut her and push her back. And that's exactly what happened. Chloe stumbled back until she was at the edge of the glider. Batgirl leapt up and roundhouse kicked her until she fell off the glider. Batgirl found herself as the only one on top of the glider along with the silver box on the ground. However, the glider was moving frantically out of control.

"Hopefully I still know how to work this thing. Come on…"

She eventually got it under control and swung it around towards the port. Batgirl knelt down and picked up the silver box with the trigger in it. Unbeknownst to Batgirl, Chloe was still hanging onto the ledge of the card. She shuffled all the way around and behind Batgirl without having her notice. When she was directly behind Batgirl, she quickly pulled herself up onto the glider and stood straight. Batgirl heard it and spun around. Chloe pulled out three razor sharp cards.

"Payback time."

She threw the three cards at Batgirl, and all three of them hit. One of them scraped her right hand, causing her to drop the silver box on the floor. The other one scraped her left leg, and the last one hit her right in the chest. The impact knocked her backwards and into the lake, with a noticeable splash when she fell down into it. Chloe made a half smile as she knelt down to pick up the box. She opened the box and pulled out the trigger. She threw the box itself into the lake and held only the trigger in her hand. Her finger rested over the "detonate" button.

Batgirl flew out of the lake and tackled Chloe to the ground. The trigger flew out of her hands. She had both knees on Chloe's chest and held her shoulders down with her arms. The trigger rested on the corner of the glider.

"I will not let you press that button." Batgirl said

Chloe smiled

"You're too late."

Batgirl looked behind her. She got up and looked at the trigger. Two words blinked on the screen.

'Bomb Activated'

Batgirl looked behind at Chloe and Chloe stood up and brushed the dirt off her shoulders.

"Unless you have a fancy gadget in that belt of yours that can reverse time, then it's over."

Batgirl got on her radio.

"Batgirl to Batman, she's activated the weapon. Your best hope is to find a way to deactivate that bomb before it…"

Chloe attacked Batgirl before she could finish. She pinned Batgirl on the ground and punched her face three times. Batgirl grabbed onto Chloe's arms and rolled the two of them over until the both fell off the glider and into the lake. The glider dropped down to the surface of the lake.

-x-

Mad Stan walked towards Batman who was lying on the ground, and he stood over him. He clenched both of his fists together and smashed down into the ground. Right before he hit, Batman managed to get his hands on the ground, and backfliped away from the impact. Batman landed on his feet.

Stan screamed as he sprinted over and fired rapid punches at Batman. Batman dodged about half of them. Batman kneed Stan in the gut and then punched Stan twice in the face. Stan simply smiled after them and landed a massive punch on Batman. It was so powerful that Batman flew to the edge of the ceiling. Batman tried to not look down.

'Batgirl to Batman, she's activated the weapon.' Terry heard it from his intercom. He watched Mad Stan walk over to him from some distance away. 'Your best hope is to deactivate the bomb before it…' The message cut off after that.

"Melanie…" Batman said quietly. Batman looked over at the thugs working with the bomb. He reached for something in his utility belt.

"Come on…what's taking so long?" The first thug asked.

"Just enabling the final settings and…voila!"

The screen on the napalm bomb lit up. A timer counting down from time 0:52 showed up, and was decreasing.

"Oh what do you know? The bomb was already activated. We better get the heck out of…"

Suddenly, he fell down flat on his face.

"Hey! What's the matter with…"

He fell down on his face not long after that too. They were both unconscious. Batman ran from behind them and pushed them aside. He pulled something out of the first thug's neck. It was a black and yellow tranquilizer dart. He had used both of them on the thugs.

"Note to self. Thank Melanie for these."

Batman looked up at the timer. It was counting down from 0:48

"Oh no."

He heard him coming. Batman jumped out of the way before Mad Stan could land another blind punch at him.

"What do you know? The little lady delivered…" Stan said

"Stan, this isn't a joke anymore. The things gonna blow and send fire everywhere! You have to tell me how to deactivate it."

"Tempting offer. But no can't do. Because what we have here is a rare opportunity to see how bats act in panic mode. And I wouldn't miss that for the world. Or in this case, the city." Stan said, grinning from ear to ear. Stan jabbed out at Batman again as he continued to dodge the punches. Batman was getting quicker and quicker at evading him. Stan was clearly getting frustrated that he wasn't hitting him. Stan let out a couple of strong punches, one of which made a dent in the side of the weapon. Stan glanced to look to see if the countdown was still working. It was still working fine. But he made a mistake by taking his eyes off of Batman. Batman leapt forward and kicked him in the chest. Batman got a few more its in on him which made him step back to the edge of the ceiling. Stan grabbed a hold of Batman's neck and tossed him backwards once again. Batman hit the ground and slid for a few seconds. The friction rubbed a few parts of his suit away, and put a couple of small cuts on his body. Batman found himself on his back once more. He looked at the countdown. 26 seconds and counting.

"Face it Batman. You can't stand up to my strength. Or to the establishment. We're all victims in the endless corporate cycle."

Batman looked to his other side and saw something interesting lying on the floor.

"Which is why all of it has to be done away with in the flames of war."

"Then I bet this will come in handy."

Batman picked up the fire extinguisher that Stan had used to knock him aside. He pulled the pin and activated the hose and fired it onto Stan's chest. Since he was so close to the edge, it knocked Stan right over the edge. Stan plummeted down Wayne Enterprises at a fast speed.

Batman pressed a button on his utility belt and the Batwing activated. It flew down after Mad Stan and caught him on top. Stan was laying on his back looking up at the sky.

A big, silver, metallic semicircle locked over Mad Stan. It was a metal cuff that extended of Stan's chest.

"What the!"

He scrambled around and punched the Batwing with the back of his fist.

The batwing flew back up to the height of Wayne Enterprises. Mad Stan eyed Batman

"You really think that this thing can hold me!"

He tried to yank it off of him by pulling on it.

"No." Batman pressed one more button on his utility belt. The batwing flipped over 180 degrees so that Mad Stan was now looking all the way down to the ground

"But you're welcome to try to escape. I wouldn't recommend it." Batman said.

Mad Stan looked at the far length down he would fall. The lock had gone from being his worst enemy to the only thing that was keeping him alive.

"Stay put."

Batman ran over to the bomb. There were only 12 seconds left on the clock.

"Wayne, come in. I have a serious issue. I need you to talk me through on how to deactivate this thing."

Terry tore the door off and looked at the wires again.

"Tell me what you see." Wayne said.

"The wires are all different colors. One's white, one's black, one's green, and one's blue."

"There should be a yellow one in there, right?"

"No yellow one. Hurry!"

"I'm not familiar. Usually bombs should always start with a yellow wire. Is there at least a red one?"

"Negatory old man. No pressure, but if you don't figure this out in 8 seconds the whole city goes up in flames, and I'm the first one to go."

"The way how it was manufactured was probably inteded to resist standard deactivation. I don't think I'm aware of this model. I'm sorry."

Batman's heart raced and his eyes widened when he realized what that meant. There was nothing more he could do.

He had failed.

Suddenly, he heard coughing over the intercom.

"Batman, it's green one! Cut the green one then the white one." Melanie's voice had said it.

"Batgirl? What the…how would you know…"

-x-

Batgirl and Chloe were fighting in the water. Batgirl forced herself up for air again.

"Batman, I've activated bombs more times than you've been to class. I know what I know what I'm talking about! Do it!"

Chloe had come back up and hit Batgirl's face again. She drug her underwater.

-x—

"Batgirl, are you okay?"

"She can take care of herself." Wayne yelled "Do what she said, now!"

Batman sighed

"You better be right, Mel."

There were three seconds left on the timer. Batman cut the green wire and then the white one.

He closed one eye and looked up at the timer with the other.

There was only one second left on the clock when he did it.

The time didn't change. It had frozen. Batman breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's done."

-x-

Batgirl and Chloe were still wrestling underwater. Batgirl turned the dial on her belt and activated her jet boosters. She rammed into Chloe and grabbed onto her as they exited the water. She flew all the way over to the dock and dropped Chloe on the ground. Batgirl held the trigger and crushed it in her hand. She dropped the pieces on the ground.

"The bomb's been deactivated. It's over, Chloe. For good."

Just then, six or seven spotlights shined over Batgirl and Chloe. Helicopters and police cars surrounded them at the dock. Barbara Gordon stepped out of one of the police vehicles with several policemen.

She walked up to both Chloe in the Ten suit and Batgirl. She examined both of them.

"Take the one in black and white. The Batgirl's with me."

The policemen handcuffed Chloe and moved her aside. Batgirl spoke to the commissioner.

"Thanks for giving me the greenlight to go and do this. I know that it was short notice"

"No problem. Trust me." She smiled. "I know what it's like to be in your shoes. You did good, kid."

"Speaking of which. I guess a lot of personal information was being spit back and forth on that intermission that I sent back to you."

"Yeah. To say the least…" Gordon said

"Could you possibly not…"

"Don't worry about it kid. If I spilled your identity to anyone, Bruce wouldn't get off my case. And that's not a position that anyone wants to be in."

She began walking away

"You know. I came to Bruce a few days ago completely convinced that criminals don't change. I don't know if I still believe that or not. But for the record, I'd say that you've earned your stripes. Whether that makes you the exception or the rule is still unclear. But you're not Ten anymore. Not if you don't want to be. Don't let anyone talk you out of that. Not even you."

Batgirl nodded. The commissioner looked forward

"Alright, let's move!"

Batgirl walked over to Chloe. One of the police guards had put her in the back of the cop car.

"Chloe…"

"There's nothing else to say, Mel. Despite all that's happened, I still respect you. And this is the way it had to be."

"No. It didn't. And it doesn't."

Batgirl spoke quieter so that no one else could hear

"If you really respect me as Ten, then you'd listen to the girl who was under the suit. Even if she's wearing a Batsuit now."

Batgirl leaned in

"This is the wrong path for you. Life as Ten was consumed with greed, hate, and worst of all, vengeance. I've got a better life now. And a better partner…"

Chloe looked at the bat symbol on her chest

"Who knows if I'll be wearing this suit again. But I know for a fact that I wont be wearing yours. Because I'm never going back to the way things used to be. Never."

"You really are happy now, aren't you?" Chloe asked.

"Maybe when you're out, we can talk more about it." She smiled. "I may even pay you a visit."

Chloe grimaced

"Terry still doesn't know yet, does he?"

"Huh?"

"The real reason why your family relocated to Gotham in the first place."

Batgirl didn't speak

"I guess I'll take that as a no." Chloe said with a whisper. "When he finds out that awful thing that you did, he'll leave you. And there'll be nothing staged about it."

-x-

Batgirl flashed back to the image of Ten watching from a rooftop. The next scene showed Ten flying away.

-x-

"But until then…" Chloe started… "I'll think about what you said. And I'd like to see you around sometime."

Chloe nodded

"Stay strong Mel."

The cop closed the door.

"That's all the time you get. Sorry, we're taking her to the station now." The guard said. "Thanks again for your help. I don't see you around very much, but I'm sure Batman's proud. Wherever he is."

The police car drove away. Batgirl looked down as the police disappeared into the fog.

Batgirl opened her wings flew up towards the sky.


	6. Secrets

It was daytime, and Melanie, Terry and Bruce were all standing in Bruce's foyer. Melanie had all of her belongings with her. The three of them were watching the news play from one of Wayne's TVs. The newscaster spoke

"And not long after the reappearance of the mysterious Batgirl, Mad Stan and his group were taken hostage by the Gotham Police, and the weapon itself has been seized and taken into police custody. The criminal 'Ten' was also taken into custody and confirmed to be a different Ten than the one who was associated with the Royal Flush Gang sometime ago. The stolen jewels were both retrieved, and returned to the Brittany's Jewelers as of this morning. While Gotham citizens are on the fringe about the appearance and reappearance of these villians, they've found comfort in knowing that Batman and this new Batgirl aren't far behind. This is Kevin Carr, Gotham City News."

The TV shut off. Wayne had pressed the remote.

"Thanks again for all of your help." Terry said.

"No. I should be thanking you guys. I never would have guessed that Chloe could have gone so far as to almost destroy the city just to get me back."

"You were on to her pretty fast though. You better be careful before you start making the original Batgirl look bad." Terry joked. "And hey, about all of that stuff that we were saying to each other when your friend was around…I hope none of it was taken personally."

"No. We had to make it look good. And speaking of looking good, I had better go back to Star City and go back to my real job."

Terry looked at his watch

"Yeah. I had better take off too."

"Here." Melanie passed her backpack to Bruce.

Bruce looked down and pushed it back

"No. I think you should keep it."

"Mr. Wayne?" Melanie asked.

"I agree." Terry said. "I know that it'll be in good hands."

"You realize that I'm not planning on wearing the suit again, right?"

"Somehow I doubt that." Bruce said

"Huh? Why?" Melanie asked

"Because we'll need you to. When the time is right." Bruce said

Melanie smiled and put the bag over her shoulder.

"Don't hold your breath."

"We won't. It'll be up to you to decide when you want to come back. And when you do. We'll be ready." Terry said.

Terry walked out the front door.

"I'll see you two later." He stopped before he left. "And Melanie. Good job. I hope that this isn't the end."

Terry closed the door. Melanie looked forward and Bruce was behind her.

"You know, you're going to have to tell him sooner or later. If not he may find out for himself." Bruce said

Melanie turned around and looked at Wayne.

"What? What are you talking ab…"

"You can save the act. I learned everything about you long before you ever stepped foot in the Batcave. Including what happened the night when you and the Royal Flush Gang came to Gotham."

Melanie stood still

"And you took me in in spite of that. You really are the world's greatest detective aren't you?"

Bruce kept quiet

"So what now? Are you gonna tell him?"

"No. But I think he needs to hear it from you."

"No."

She crossed her arms and looked out the window

"Terry can't know. He can never know."

Bruce walked up next to her

"Take it from the one who spent the greater part of his life hiding under a mask. Everyone has their secrets, Melanie. But secrets always have price."

Melanie began walking forward

"Then it's a price that I'm going to have to be willing pay. Until next time, Mr. Wayne."

Melanie left the house and locked the door behind her. Bruce looked forward with a frown.

-x-

Wayne Industries in Star City.

It was 11:02 PM the following day. 2 minutes past closing time.

Kate Robinson picked up a stack of papers and put them in a file. She was dressed head to toe in her work uniform. She walked down the aisle and turned the corner. Her instructions were to deliver the file to the front office, and then lock up for the night.

She stopped in front of the front office and pulled the key out of her pocket. She unlocked the door, walked in, and then closed it behind her. She was expecting for the room to be empty so that she could put the files on the office table and then leave for the night. She walked forward to the table with the files, but was startled when she heard a man's voice behind her.

"Kate Robinson." He said. Kate jumped and dropped the files on the ground, and the documents fell on the floor.

"Who on earth do you think you…"

She turned around, and was standing face to face with the businessman with black hair. Paxton Powers.

"Aren't you…"

"Paxton Powers. Sorry if I startled you."

He knelt down and picked the files off of the floor. He handed them back to her.

"Your dad used to own this place along with Bruce Wayne."

She took the files from him.

"Yes, he did. And actually, it seems like our fathers were both pretty well acquainted. They worked together on a pretty ambitious project."

"Yeah. Some weapon or something. Word on the street is that Batgirl stole the trigger from my house while no one was home."

"It's funny that you mention that, I've had a very recent run in with that Batgirl myself. Both her and Batman have been among the greatest nuisances in the history of Gotham."

Kate blinked a few times

"Is there a reason why you're here?" She asked

"Well you see, I was getting to that. I was doing a little research on our own, and it seems as if neither of our fathers put a ton of stock in that bomb of theirs because they were extremely fascinated in another project that was being done by other scientists at the time. Out of all of our neighboring cities where the weird and unexplained things happen, Gotham has the longest and most diverse history of mutated specimen. Everything from subzero metabolisms to Splicers, Gotham's had it all. And what would the potential be if we could reproduce some of the abilities that the mutated specimen had use them against, well, certain bats that make Gotham a hard place to live."

"Bottom liner, prep boy. Why does this concern me?"

"I'm here to offer you a job. A job that pays 10 fold what this one does. I figured, that hey, Dr. Robinson's apple couldn't have fallen far from the tree, so I thought you could be a good fit."

"10 times what I make here huh?" She asked. She deliberately dropped the folder on the floor once again and folded her arms and smiled. "I'm listening."

"Good. But first I have a quick background question for you."

"Shoot."

"How interested are you in…" Paxton raised his eyebrow. "Plant life?"

**TO BE CONCLUDED**

-x-

**So that's pretty much it for the second installment of Batgirl Beyond. Hope you liked it. Just so you know, I am planning to make this a trilogy, so the next story will be a direct continuation of this one, and will be the epic conclusion to the three stories. Hoping to make it better than this and the first one. **

**And unrelated to this story, but since I've been asked, I am still working on some of my other projects, namely the Digital Crisis movie that I announced a while ago. **

**Please leave comments, and thanks for reading! **


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